The Body of the Dragon
by Akane Raikou
Summary: When Sora Sakamoto ran away from the Arcadia Movement, she unknowingly changed her fate and the fate of others in the process. She couldn't have expected the events that followed because of her decision. Especially the fact that she would gain true friends. Yusei X OC.
1. The Beginning

Hey guys, Akane here! Welcome to a new story that I decided to write!

This one will focus on my new OC, Sora Sakamoto.

This was also written in first person, which I haven't done in a while, so please tell me if I need to fix anything! Just so you all know, I'm using the Japanese anime for this story.

Finally, this is going to be updated monthly, but there is a chance that updates might be earlier or later than that. ^_^

NOTE: Somehow, the ending of this chapter is similar to RaisingHeartExelion's _The Crimson Star Priestess_ ' first chapter. It's completely by accident that this happened, but I wanted to let you guys know.

* * *

I was running as fast as I could, trying to get as much distance between me and the looming black skyscraper as possible. My boots smacked against the ground repeatedly as I ran, while my hair flapped around behind me. My grey bag was hitting my side, but I wasn't really paying attention to that. I was gasping for breath, but I knew I couldn't stop running. Not unless I wanted to go back to that place.

That place was the Arcadia Movement, a home for psychic duelists like me who were shunned by society. I had been there for as long as I could remember, since Divine found me on the streets after I'd been labelled a monster and freak, but I never really felt like it was a home. For me, it was more like a training area for the military. We were constantly trained to use our powers, but never really taught how to control them. Most of the time, I just watched the psychics hurt each other, or other people, which just ended with them being called monsters. There were times I wished I was a normal psychic duelist, since I wouldn't have gotten his attention.

When I duelled, I couldn't cause physical injury to my opponent. Hell, I couldn't even materialize one monster for longer than 10 seconds, which was a good thing in my book, since I hated injuring others. However, I could heal the injuries of others instead, which was a rare ability, according to him. Though I couldn't heal fatal injuries or broken bones. The most that I could heal were just cuts and bruises, which was rather sad, since most psychic duels usually ended with far worse injuries than that.

Due to my abilities, I ended up spending most of my time reading books, since I couldn't really train my powers to get stronger without anyone to teach me. Hell, I couldn't even practice on myself, since I tried once, and I woke up in a hospital since I couldn't get my powers to heal myself. Needless to say, I learned my lesson about ever trying that again. I did hang around the infirmary a few times, reading the medical texts that were around to see if I could figure out how to make my powers stronger, but I just ended up confused more often than not. There was a time where Divine tried to get me to materialize a monster for longer than 10 seconds, or inflict an injury on another. The only thing that ended up happening was I got a really bad headache and passed out for 4 hours. He never tried to get me to materialize a monster or hurt another again. I guess he just gave up on ever making me stronger. Not that I could blame him, even if I found his staring afterwards rather creepy.

Though I never told him about the other thing I could do. While I couldn't materialize a monster, I could see their spirits outside of duels. This, of course, freaked me out when I was younger, as I was seeing duel monsters outside of duels with no explanation. I knew that many people thought of me as crazy because I kept screaming at thin air when I was younger, and I couldn't really blame them. I would have though the same thing if I didn't have my powers. I never told him this because I felt like I had to keep it a secret.

But most of all, I was envious of the people without any psychic powers. I used to stare out the window of my room all the time, just watching them walk and live their lives without worry. Though at the same time, I hated them, since they were the ones that shunned us just because we were different. I think I could understand why they thought that, and while I didn't like it, it made sense; it was human nature to fear something that you don't understand. That didn't stop me from hating the way that I had been treated when I was younger, but now that I was older, I had mostly put it behind me. But, I still refused to tell anyone I met about my powers because I feared that I would be shunned once again.

However, a while ago, I had started to feel somewhat suspicious about the Movement's true motives, so I decided to leave. I only brought a few of the things I could call mine, which didn't include the stupid uniform of the Movement. These things were my duel disk, my deck, an extra outfit, and a pendant that I wore around my neck. I had a feeling that it used to belong to one of my parents, but I couldn't remember them anyway, so I had no way of knowing.

Which leads me to my current situation. I could tell that my body was going to give out soon, since I hadn't stopped running since I left the building. While I wanted to indulge my body's impulse to pass out, at the same time I was worried that I would get dragged back, and I didn't want that to happen. Especially after all the trouble I went through just to get out of that building without getting spotted.

As I was running, I could see an alley up ahead. I quickly darted into it, and as soon as I did, I collapsed against the wall. Panting, as I tried to regain my breath, I leaned my head against it, the cool temperature was relaxing to me after running for so long.

 _Maybe… It wouldn't be so bad to take a nap for a few minutes…_ I thought as my eyes slowly closed, dragging me to sleep.

* * *

As I started to wake up, the first thing I realized was that I wasn't in the alley anymore. I was far too comfortable to be in that concrete alley. I slowly opened my eyes, and sat up carefully. I still wasn't sure if I had gotten enough rest, and I'd rather not knock myself out because I wasn't careful.

After I sat up, I finally got a good look as to what I was lying on, which was a couch. And a rather soft one at that. I looked around the room, which appeared to be a living room. Compared to any of the rooms I had been in, this was massive. This made my room back at Arcadia look like an office in comparison.

Since I was looking around, I didn't hear or notice two people come in until they gasped.

"You're awake!" one of them exclaimed, causing me to turn around.

What I ended up seeing was surprising for me. The two people in front of me were just kids, both with teal hair and brown eyes. Though one had their hair in pigtails, and the other had their's in a ponytail. I could tell that the one with the pigtails was a girl, since her face looked more feminine than the other, who was a boy. They were both wearing white shorts and white short sleeved jackets, but their shirts were different colors, with the girls being pink and long-sleeved, while the boy's was blue.

My biggest question was why were they alone at home? Where were their parents? And why did they bring a complete stranger into their house? It made no sense to me.

"Uhh, lady. Are you ok?" the boy asked me, waving his hand in front of my face. I blinked a few times, before realizing that I had been caught up in my thoughts. I looked at the two of them, before giving them an apologetic smile.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just got caught up in my thoughts," I said quietly. "How did I get here anyway?"

"We found you in an alley not too far from here, and it looked like you were unconscious. Since it was going to start raining, we brought you here," the girl said.

"That was a nice thing to do, especially for someone you don't know," I commented. I was actually impressed by their maturity, since many people in Neo Domino wouldn't do that for a person they found on the streets. They would just look at them in contempt before walking away. That particular occurrence was something I was rather used to, since it had happened several times when I went out into the city. It was pretty much the reason why I never left my room at Arcadia.

I swung my legs off the couch, inspecting myself. I was still in the same outfit that I had worn when I ran away. It consisted of a grey sleeveless top with light grey lining, a two toned blue skirt, with lighter blue lining the bottom of it while the rest of it was a darker blue, black biker shorts that went down to my mid-thighs, grey armbands that went from my wrists to my elbows, and light grey socks. I reached up and touched the back of my head, and I felt the dark blue ribbon that I used to tie up some of my sky blue hair into a bun was still there. However, I did notice that I wasn't wearing my ankle high black boots that had the top folded over upon themselves, but as I looked down, I saw them on the floor near the couch, along with my bag. Relieved, I reached down and picked it up, placing it on my lap. Opening it up, I saw that everything was still there, including my duel disk and deck. I pulled out the pendant that was inside, which was a blue gem surrounded by gold, and looked at it for a few seconds before putting it on. Once it was, I sighed slightly, I closed my bag, and set it down beside me.

I looked up at the two people who brought me here staring at me intensely. It was kind of disconcerting, since I never knew that kids could have that look.

"Is everything alright?" the girl asked me.

I nodded. "Yes, everything's fine," I paused for a second as I reached down for my boots. I wanted to thank them, but I didn't know their names. "Um… who are you two anyway?" I ended lamely, as I wasn't exactly the most social person in the world.

The boy grinned. "I'm Lua, and this is my twin sister Luka!" he pointed towards his sister. "Now, who are you?"

I looked at the both of them before replying. "Sora. Sora Sakamoto." I started to put my boots on as I said, "Where am I?"

"You're in our apartment in the Tops area," Luka told me. I froze when I heard that. How could I have run into the Tops? I hadn't even been running for that long. Though it was possible, since I had never really gone out of the building except to go to the Daimon Area, so I probably got lost.

I finished putting on my boots, and grabbed by bag, putting it over my shoulder. While I was grateful for what the two of them did, I knew I couldn't stay here.

"Where are you going?" Lua asked me. I turned back towards the two of them.

"Thanks for bringing me here and taking care of me while I was asleep… but I should go," I said seriously.

"But do you have anywhere to go?" Luka questioned, causing me to stop. The only place that I could even go to is the Arcadia Movement, but I would never return there. So, to be honest, I don't have anywhere to go. But I didn't want to burden the twins or put them in danger, especially if Divine came after me like I know he would.

"No. But I'll deal with it, since I've had to before," I respond, my mind flashing back to the time I lived on the streets when I was little. I quickly shook my head to clear my thoughts, as that time wasn't one that I liked to remember.

I started to walk forward again, when I felt something close around my left wrist. I turned my head back and saw that Luka had wrapped her hands around it, holding me in place. It wasn't something that I was used to, seeing as no one ever wanted me around, even back at Arcadia. I always figured that it was because of the fact that I wasn't like the rest of the psychics that they didn't like me.

"If you want… you can stay here with Lua and I," Luka suggested with a gentle look in her eyes.

To say that I was shocked at the offer would be an understatement. Did they really trust me - a complete stranger mind you - to stay here with them? Especially when they didn't know anything about me?

"Are you sure?" I questioned quietly, still in shock at the offer. "You just met me. What about your parents? What would they think?"

"I can tell that you're someone trustworthy," Luka told me. "Even if your aura is somewhat guarded, there's still a kind and gentle feeling from it." The way that Luka said that was shocking to me. No one had ever described me as kind or gentle. I was always called a monster or a witch because of my ability to heal, and at Arcadia I was basically a loner, as I was so different from the others there. So I had no idea how to take what Luka just said.

"And our parents wouldn't mind," Lua added with a smile on his face as he walked over to his sister's side. "They're always gone on business trips, and they would be fine with you looking after us, as long as they got to talk to you first."

I looked at the both of them, and I saw that they were hoping that I would take them up on their offer. To be honest, I was actually considering it. Not only were these two really nice - something that was rare in the city - but they also reminded me of the younger sibling that I always wanted so that I wouldn't be alone anymore. Plus, I wanted to repay them for taking care of me, and this would be a good way to do so.

A small smile appeared on my face as I said, "Sure, I'll stay."

* * *

Well, that's the end.

The next chapter'll come out when I get the time, since school just started for me, and I'm going to be spending most of my time on that, along with working on an art course that I'm going to be starting soon.

Also, what do you think of Sora just based on what is in this chapter? Is there anything I could fix about her character? This is the first 5D's fic I've ever written, so getting feedback on my writing and character would be really helpful.

Until next time,

Akane~


	2. A Meeting and Parting

Hey guys, Akane here, and welcome to the next chapter of The Body of the Dragon!

First thing I have to say is that I wasn't expecting the positive response that I got on just the first chapter. I'm glad you guys liked it and Sora as well! It really made my day seeing all of those reviews, favorites, and follows. ^_^

I really have only one other thing to say, and that's in regards to Sora's deck. There is one monster in her deck that isn't from 5D's, and that would be Clear Wing Synchro Dragon. When I started to construct her deck, I didn't realize that Clear Wing was a card from Arc-V. I was going to change it, but I decided that it fit Sora so well that I couldn't. I posted a screenshot of the deck I built on my DeviantArt, so if you want to see what her deck looks like, go check it out! My username is AkaneRaikou.

Finally, there might be a few typos that I might have missed when editing, though I have editing it several times. If you see one, please point it out so that I could fix it.

Well, onto the story!

* * *

I sighed as I closed my book and leaned back against the couch. I think it had been around a month an a half since Luka and Lua found me in the alleyway, and shortly after they convinced me to stay, they had called their parents to interview me. I had been really nervous, since I had no idea what they were going to ask me. But when I finally talked to them, I found that they were rather nice, even if they were slightly biased against Satellites and those who had been in the Facility. Though I couldn't blame them. With all the segregation that this city had, it was to be expected. Even if I didn't like it. After a bit of talking, they said that it was fine for me to look after the twins, which made me rather happy. In fact, I was happier than I had ever been. After that, the twins and I had gotten close to each other, so they started calling me nee-san which shocked me at first. But I quickly got used to it, seeing as the twins practically felt like they were my siblings.

Eventually, Lua found out I had a deck, and started begging me to duel him. While I tried to avoid giving in, as I hated to duel, just to see the pain in the spirits' eyes as they were destroyed, it was rather hard, since he was really persistent. Though his begging did get so annoying once that I gave in and duelled him, if only to get him to stop bothering me. While Rua had a good deck, he just wasn't that experienced and didn't know how to go up against my dragons and winged beasts, so he ended up losing. While I wasn't an amazing duelist, I've had my deck for as long as I can remember, and I know some decent stratagies. But, because of my ability to see Duel Monster Spirits, I tended to avoid duels in general.

I stood up and stretched, feeling my joints pop back in to place. Lowering my arms, I walked over to the door that lead to the balcony and opened it, stepping outside into the cool night air. Sliding the door closed behind me, I walked over to the railing and leaned against it with my arms on top. A slight breeze came by, ruffling my hair and blowing it back. As soon as the breeze went away, I heard a slight growl, and turned my head to see one of my duel monster spirits next to me. While I was close with all of my spirits, I was particularly close to this one. It was a dragon with a white body and four transparent, blue wings. It was striped black and while it had no feet, it still had arms.

"Hey Clear Wing," I stated, looking up at its face. It growled again, before lowering its head to my level and nudging my right hand. I smiled softly, lifting up my right hand and holding it over where Clear Wing's head would be if it wasn't a spirit. I paused at that thought. I could materialize it, but that would take up a lot of energy. Was it worth it though? I thought about that for a few minutes before I reached a decision. It was worth it. After all, Clear Wing as been by my side all this time, and what better way to say thanks than actually being able to touch it? I slowly closed my eyes and focused on nothing else but Clear Wing being here. Almost instantly, I could feel the energy drain, telling me that it was working. I opened my eyes again, and carefully put my hand on my dragons face. I could feel the smooth texture of its skin, and it growled in contentment as I moved my hand up and down its forehead. But sadly, I couldn't keep up the materialization, so Clear Wing soon returned to its spirit form. I could feel my knees shaking slightly, but I was able to remain standing, so at least I could get back inside.

As I slowly walked back to the door, I could feel Clear Wing leaving and heading back to wherever Duel Monster Spirits live. I had a small smile on my face, happy that I was able to give Clear Wing some thanks for being by my side all this time. Opening the door quietly, so that I won't wake the twins, since it was around 10:00, I stepped inside and closed the door before walking into the room that the twins had given me when their parents had given me my current job. It was a rather plain room, with beige walls and a wooden floor. There was a king sized bed, with simple white sheets next to the wall, along with a dresser and closet. To be honest, I was still not quite used to the size of the room, having lived with just a twin sized bed and dresser back when I lived in the Arcadia Movement.

I headed over to the dresser, grabbing a pair of long pyjama pants that went down to my ankles and a tank top before heading over to the bathroom that was connected to my room so that I could change. When I came back out, I walked over to the bed and pulled back the covers so that I could get in the bed. The tiredness that I had been fighting all day finally took over then, and I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

* * *

It was several hours after I woke up, and I was currently watching TV with the twins. Though I wasn't really paying attention to it, as I was looking through a book once again. The twins didn't really understand my love of books until I explained it to them, though I did change some of the details so that I could keep the fact that I was a psychic secret for a little longer. I told them that I wasn't exactly a social person, so I preferred the company of books instead. It was true after all, considering I never actually talked to anyone prior to coming here.

The sound of the doorbell pulled me out of my book, so I quickly bookmarked the page and placed it down so I could stand up. I walked towards the door, and looked through the peephole only to see quite possibly the oddest looking person I had ever seen.

On the other side of the door stood a short, effeminate looking man wearing red lipstick. He had two lines running down vertically over his eyes, and had spiky purple hair. He was dressed in a red coat with a black collar and gold trim, and underneath the coat was a white shirt with gold lining, gloves, and black and gold boots.

I stared at him through the peephole for a good minute, trying to understand what I was seeing. _He looks like a clown,_ I thought to myself, still in disbelief at his appearance. I quickly shook my head to clear my thoughts, seeing as opening to door only to stare at him would be considered rude.

I opened the door, so that I could ask him why he was here. When I did, I was shocked to find out that this man was only slightly taller than the twins. _How could someone be that short?_ I mentally shook my head to clear to clear it, seeing as the man was looking at me. "Can I help you?" I asked cautiously.

The man cleared his throat. "Yes, Miss Sakamoto," he replied, causing me to narrow my eyes. How did he know my name? "I'm Special Deputy Yeager, and I work for Director Goodwin. I have a delivery for you and your charge, Luka."

I raised an eyebrow at his explanation. What made us so special that we got something delivered personally? And what kind of delivery was it? "What kind of delivery?" I questioned, voicing my thoughts.

Yeager pulled out two decorated envelopes from his coat and held them out to me. I carefully took them out of his hands while he spoke, "Director Goodwin invites the both of you to the annual Fortune Cup duel tournament." I froze when I heard that. A duel tournament? I honestly didn't want to take part in it, but all things considered I would probably have to.

"Have a good day, Miss Sakamoto," he said as he walked away. My eyes followed him until he got in the elevator, and then I looked down at the envelopes that were in my hands as I closed the door.

"… a duel tournament, huh?" I questioned quietly, as I walked back to the twins. They had already turned to face me with curious looks.

"Who was it, Sora-nee?" Lua asked me.

"Director Goodwin's weird clown-like assistant," I responded. "Apparently both Luka and I are invited to participate in the Fortune Cup."

"That's awesome!" Lua exclaimed. _Of course he would be excited about this,_ I thought to myself. _After all, he loves dueling._

I handed the envelope to Luka, but she didn't open it, instead choosing to just stare at it. "I don't know," she muttered, but I was still able to hear it. "I'm not that good, and I don't like duelling in front of others."

I sat down next to her. "I'm the same way you know," I started, causing her to look at me. "I don't really like dueling in general, except for friendly matches. I'm just not a competitive person, and I'm not that good anyway." I smiled at her kindly. She gave me a small one in return.

* * *

It was several hours later, and the twins were watching TV once again. This time, though, my book was on the table, and I was sitting on the floor going through my deck once again. I was trying to figure out a few new strategies that didn't involve swarming the field with dragons, or quickly summoning a high level monster to the field. However, I was hitting a lot of dead ends with that endeavour, since I preferred to get duels done quickly, so I had a lot of high attack monsters with decent effects. Groaning quietly to myself as I organized all my cards once again, this time to put them away, when my right arm suddenly started hurting. I winced, and looked down only to see a red mark appear on it. It was made up of two lines, with a thiner and shorter one inside the outer and thicker one. It looked like a straightened elfin ear, only the outer line had three stiff spikes growing out of it. I quickly covered it with my left hand, trying to hide it when the burning increased. I didn't really know what to think of this mark. When it had appeared the first time, my powers started showing up. I didn't really think of them as a curse, since I can't hurt others, but at the same time, they were the cause of me joining the Arcadia Movement. Plus, around two weeks ago it had appeared again, bringing along the same burning sensation.

I heard Luka gasp, causing me to turn around and face her, only to see a red mark on her arm as well, but this one was in the shape of a claw. I frowned. Why did she have a mark? She was only twelve!

I was broken out of my thoughts when I heard Lua shout for his sister to come back, as she had just run off. I quickly stood up and followed her, with Lua running behind me. We caught up to her as she got to the elevator, and managed to get in before the door closed. All of us were silent as we rode the elevator down, and as soon as we were on the ground floor, we bolted out of the elevator towards the exit of the building. The three of us ran out and around the corner, where we saw a person lying next to a D-Wheel. I quickly walked over to the person and put two of my fingers on his neck, exhaling in relief when I felt a pulse. I looked back at the twins.

"We have to get him inside. Could you two push the D-Wheel?"

* * *

Eventually, the twins and I managed to get the stranger inside, along with the runner. Though as soon as we got him on the couch, we were all so tired that we just ended up going straight to bed.

By the time the twins and I were awake the next morning, the stranger was still out cold. But considering the fact that he had crashed, it wasn't that big of a surprise.

"Hey, what's that on his face?" Lua asked, curiously.

"It's a marker. Everyone who is caught by Security has one." Luka told her brother.

I had never really understood why Security marked the faces of the people they caught. I mean, sure it was helpful for knowing if someone committed a crime, but still. Giving someone a permanent mark that basically destroyed their chance at getting a job after they get out of the Facility was rather cruel. It was just another thing that I wasn't fond of in this city, besides the prejudice.

I stood up and headed over to the door. For some reason, I just felt like going out for a walk.

"Lua, Luka," I said, causing the two of them to look at me. "I'm heading out to get fresh air. Can you two look after our guest while I'm gone?"

Luka didn't look very comfortable with that, but Lua looked overjoyed. "When will you be back?" Luka asked.

"Hopefully I'll be back in about an hour, but it's hard to tell," I replied, putting another set of boots on, though this pair had a small pair of heels. I grabbed my wallet and keys, before walking out.

* * *

As it turned out, I ended up going out for longer than I intended. I ended up getting lost, and eventually managed to get to a small drugstore. When I was there, I did end up buying some medical supplies, since if I did get injured, I wouldn't be able to heal myself. In my opinion, even if I didn't need them, it was better to be safe than sorry.

As I approached the entrance to the Tops Residential area, I noticed a Security vehicle outside the gate. There was an officer in front of the gate operator, and as I got closer, I could hear an argument between the two of them.

"Why can't you do anything?!" The officer exclaimed.

"I didn't say I 'cannot'." the guard replied, before continuing. "To repeat myself, a Satellite investigator needs authorization to go through the formal procedures in order to conduct an investigation in the Tops Residential Area."

It was fairly obvious that the officer was getting angry at the fact he wasn't able to investigate, but I did end up learning something interesting. Maybe the guy the twins and I found in the alleyway came from the Satellite? It was certainly an option.

The officer put his hands on his ears in anger. "I'm telling you! There's a chance that some scum from Satellite got in there!"

I narrowed my eyes in anger. I didn't understand the hatred that the Satellites got. They were the ones that dealt with all of the trash that the city threw out, which I thought was stupid, since the city could deal with its own trash instead of making the people who live on an island deal with it. They were people just like us, and yet they were treated like shit. I just couldn't stand it.

"Therefore, in order to investigate, you need to go through the pro—" the guard started, but I interrupted him.

"Excuse me, Mr. Minamoto. Can I go through, please?" I asked politely, not bothering to give the officer any of my attention.

The both of them looked at me. "Ah, Miss Sakamoto," he said, noticing that I was there. "Of course. I'll open the gate now."

As he walked in, the officer looked towards me. "Hey kid."

I turned towards him, keeping my expression carefully blank.

"Be careful okay, Satellite scum has infested the neighbourhood," he growled out.

"Just because someone comes from the Satellite doesn't mean they're scum," I told him calmly. "You're basically saying that just because they come from a certain area, they're all the same. There's no way that you can know if all of the Satellites act the same because of where they live, and by doing so, you're discriminating against those who had no control over where they were born."

The officer actually looked taken aback by what I said. He obviously hadn't had someone say that to him before. What I said though was true. I had been on the end of the very same attitude that this officer had before, and because of that, I can't stand those who say those kinds of things.

By this time, the gate had just opened, so I ended up sprinting away towards the tallest building, before the officer could even say something back to me.

* * *

"You're a duelist, right Yusei?"

That was the first thing that I heard when I got back into the penthouse that I lived in with the twins. I raised my eyebrow as I placed the bag down and took off my boots. It looks like our guest had awoken during the time I was lost.

I walked around the corner to see our guest, whose name I had just learned was Yusei, with his jacket and gloves on, and it looked like he was attaching a metal gauntlet to his left arm. Lua was standing off to the side, while Luka was sitting on one of the arms of the couch where Yusei had been laying down earlier.

Apparently, I must have made some noise as I came around the corner, since all three of them turned to look at me.

"Ah, Sora-nee! You're back!" Lua exclaimed.

"You got lost again, didn't you?" Luka asked me, causing a sweat drop to form on the back of my head.

"Yeah, I did," I said sheepishly, scratching the back of my head with my right arm. "At least I made it back earlier this time. That's differently an accomplishment." I saw Luka shake her head at me, and I couldn't really blame her. After all, during the month and a half that I've known the two of them, I had gotten lost so often that sometimes took me around an hour or two just to get back. The twins had tried to get me a cell phone with a map, if only so I wouldn't get lost all the time, but I wouldn't let them. They had already done so much for me by taking me in and giving me a job, and I didn't want them to buy me something that I wouldn't have any idea how to use.

I turned to look at Yusei, before walking up to him and holding my hand out. "I'm Sora Sakamoto," I said to him as I looked up. He was definitely taller than me by a few inches, which wasn't that surprising, but I was fairly tall, being around 5'6".

He looked at me for a few seconds, before shaking my hand. "Yusei," was all that he said to me. Considering what I heard from the officer at the entrance to the Tops, I couldn't really blame him for wanting to keep his last name a secret.

During this, I saw his eyes were a dark blue, similar to the top of mine. His eyes are pretty… I thought before I could stop myself. My brain froze as soon as I thought that, and I wanted to hit my head against something. _No! Bad Sora! You've only known him for the better part of five minutes! Why did you think that?!_

Apparently unaware of my self deprecating thoughts, Yusei let go of my hand, and turned back towards Lua.

"I play too. C'mon, will ya duel me? It gets kinda boring facing Sora-nee and Luka all the time." Lua asked excitedly.

Luka looked somewhat offended by what her twin had said. "That wasn't called for. You're weak yourself, Lua."

I could sense an argument about to start, so I decided to intervene. "Stop it, you two," I said calmly, causing the two of them to look at me, and they saw that I wasn't in the mood to break up another fight.

Lua decided to stop arguing with his sister, seeing as I was somewhat annoyed by their behavior. He turned back to Yusei. "Say, you strong, Yusei?"

I kinda felt bad for Yusei, seeing as Lua had been asking him a few questions. I knew that when Lua wanted to duel you, he would pester you until you gave in. That's what happened with me.

Yusei looked down at him, but it looked like something caught his eye, and I had a pretty good feeling that it was Lua's Jack Atlas Shrine. The whole thing was kinda ridiculous, since from what I gathered when I watched the end of one of his duels - because Lua made me - he was somewhat of an asshole. It looked like his fame went to his head, and I really didn't like his attitude towards those that he beats.

Lua looked behind him, realizing what Yusei must have been looking at. He turned around to face the shrine. "Ah, those? They're my treasures—my King memorabilia!"

He held his fists in front of him, with a determined look on his face. "It's my dream to be the King someday myself!"

He turned his head up to face Yusei, "I wanna Riding Duel, too!"

I probably would never riding duel, since I prefer both of my feet on the ground, though I might change my mind eventually. But for now? No thank you.

Luka looked at her brother. "You can do that without being King."

Lua huffed. "Geez, Luka, hush up for a second!"

I groaned. "Oh my god, you two. Would you just stop fighting for longer than five minutes, please?"

The both of them looked at me. "Sorry, Sora-nee."

It was quiet for a few seconds, before Lua looked up at Yusei once again. "So, you into the King, Yusei?"

Yusei turned his head away from Lua. "No, I'm not."

"I can't really blame you," I said, causing Yusei to look at me. "After all, from what I've seen, Jack's somewhat of an asshole."

Yusei cracked an almost unnoticeable smile at my words. I guess he must have run into Jack Ass-las then.

Lua looked back towards his shrine, putting his arms behind his head. "Oh, that so? Almost a shame that you even Riding Duel, then."

I frowned. "Lua, that was uncalled for. Not everyone has to like the King, and I sure don't like him."

Apparently, neither Yusei nor Lua heard what I said, since Yusei looked down at Lua. "Why do you say that?"

Lua looked over towards the entrance, and pointed at the red D-Wheel that we brought up. "'Cause that's a D-Wheel, right?"

Yusei looked up, and his eyes widened slightly as he saw his D-Wheel. He started to walk over to it, while Lua ran up slightly so that he was standing slightly in front of Luka. "So, if you're a D-Wheeler, you must yearn to be the King!"

I walked towards Yusei, to see that he was inspecting it. Since I didn't really know much - or anything at all about D-Wheels - I just stood back and watched.

"Doesn't look like he was listening to you, Lua," Luka said to her brother.

"Well, then…" Lua ran over to his shrine, and grabbed the envelope he had put there last night. He grabbed it and ran over to where Yusei and I were.

"Yusei, look at this here! I could duel against the King!" He held it up. Yusei turned towards him.

Lua opened it up, showing off the invitation, though instead of his name, it had Luka's on it. "Ta-da!"

Yusei reached down and picked it up, looking at it curiously. "The Duel of Fortune Cup?"

Lua lifted his arms up again, with an excited expression on his face. "Uh-huh! I hear Kaiba Corporation is holding a tournament with people they picked at random!" He started waving his arms around. "And Luka and Sora-nee where picked to be two of them!"

"The duelist who wins it gets to duel none other than the King!" Lua had a big smile on his face when he said that. Considering how much he looked up to Jack, I couldn't really blame him.

Yusei gasped quietly when he heard that, and Luka said casually, "I don't feel like entering, and I know Sora-nee doesn't want to, but she has no other choice."

Lua looked annoyed by what his sister had said. "You hear that? Luka's always this way! That's why I'm gonna dress up like her and enter!" he then added in a quieter voice, "And Sora-nee just doesn't like duelling in general."

Luka shook her head at her brother. "There's no way you can impersonate me."

Lua ran back to his sister in anger. "There is so a way! We look exactly the same!"

"Look the same? How?" Luka asked her brother.

Meanwhile, both Yusei and I just watched this unfold with varying looks of disbelief. I turned to him with an apologetic look on my face. "Sorry about them. This sort of thing happens almost daily."

He turned to look at me. "It's alright," he said before looking back at the invitation.

"You don't trust Yusei, Luka?! He's a duelist who takes good care of his cards, right?! I want to help him out!" I heard Lua shout, causing both Yusei and I to turn and look at them once again. I was rather confused though. How did Luka and Lua know that Yusei took good care of his cards?

Yusei started to put the invitation back into the envelope. "I appreciate you guys letting hold up here, but you're best off not getting involved with me," he said as he threw the envelope back at Lua's shrine. It landed right where it was originally, and Yusei started to walk to the elevator.

I snorted. "It's kinda hard to do that now, though. After all, when we brought you up here, we got ourselves involved with you." I said, drawing his attention to me. "After all, where will you go? Security is watching all of the exits to the Tops, so it would be best to wait until night before you go."

All three of them turned to look at me. "How do you know that, Sora-nee?" Lua asked me.

"When I was on my way back from that walk, I saw an officer telling the guard at the gate that there was a criminal in here. But no matter what they tried, they weren't able to get in. That officer wasn't happy about it, though," I told them.

Lua was quiet for a few seconds after hearing that, but he quickly returned to his normal self. "Oh, right!" He ran over to the closet to get something, and I had a feeling that it was his duel disk.

When he got back, he had his oversized duel disk on his left arm. I was honestly still wondering why he had one that huge. I mean, it was easily twice the size of his arm, so it looked ridiculous when he used it.

"Yusei, duel me! A duelist always accepts any challenge he's posed!" Lua said, looking up at Yusei.

Yusei looked up from his D-Wheel to face Lua, right as Luka started talking once again. "Aren't you the one causing the trouble now, Lua?"

Lua turned around to face his sister once again. By this point, I had basically given up on trying to make them stop arguing. "But, I'm sure Yusei's tough! I wanna duel against tough players!"

"Lua," I started, causing him to look at me. "If you only duel against tough opponents, you'll always lose. You have to work your way up to that level, and you should start with duelling people at your own level."

"But Sora-nee…" he whined.

"Do you really want to lose over and over because you challenged people that you couldn't beat?" I asked him seriously. Based on when I beat him, I could tell that he didn't like losing, and I couldn't blame him, since I don't like losing either. But in order to improve, you have to lose so that you can figure out what you did wrong.

"It's alright, Sora," Yusei said to me. I looked at him as he turned back to Lua, who's duel disk had just slid down his arm when he raised it.

"Alright, let's play," he said to Lua, who started jumping up and down in happiness, which brought a smile to my face.

* * *

 _Well, that was rather sad,_ was my only thought when I saw how the duel had ended from my place on the sofa. Suffice to say, Yusei utterly destroyed Lua without losing a single LP. Which was definitely impressive, but I had a feeling that this didn't happen that often.

Shortly after Yusei won, he tried to leave again, but I managed to convince him to stay for dinner, and that was a hard thing to do, since he was so insistent. But I was rather stubborn at times, so he eventually just gave up and stayed. Lua had trouble not laughing at the both of us, since it did look kind of ridiculous.

It was around midnight right now, and the twins had been in bed for around two hours, but for some reason, I couldn't sleep. Eventually, I just gave up and started to walk over to my door so that I could go to the kitchen to make some hot chocolate, since that helped me relax.

As I walked down to the kitchen, I heard the sound of tinkering with a machine. Curious, I followed the sound, only to see Yusei sitting on the couch with the twins' duel disks in front of him. Quietly, I walked over to him.

"So you're fixing the disks so that they fit the twins' arms?" I asked him.

He must have heard me walk in, because he turned around. "Yeah. They remind me of a friend, so it's the least I could do."

I gave a small smile, before it disappeared. "You're leaving after this, aren't you?"

He nodded. "I can't drag you into my problems anymore than I already have."

I sighed. "I know there's no way to convince you to stay, but all I can say is be careful. After all, there's a lot of problems with this city."

Yusei nodded, standing up and walking over to his D-Wheel. I followed him over there as he started wheeling his D-Wheel over to the elevator.

Yusei turned to look at me, "I'll repay you next time we meet."

I shook my head. "That's not necessary," I told him, though another smile appeared on my face. "But if you really want to, then I guess a duel would work."

Yusei smiled slightly. "Okay then."

I waved at him slightly as the door started to close. "See you," I said as door closed and started to descend. I turned around and started walking to the kitchen so that I could finally make myself some hot chocolate. As I did, I turned to look out the window, while holding my right arm, where the mark had appeared. _I have a feeling that something big is about to happen,_ I thought to myself. _And it won't be good._

* * *

Well, that's the end of this chapter.

What I wanted to do in this chapter was give Sora some more human interaction with the cast, as well as give her some more personality. How did I do?

The next chapter is nearly done, so I might be able to post it early depending on how long it takes for my inspiration to come back.

Until next chapter,

Akane~


	3. The Black Rose and A Discussion

Hey guys, Akane here!

There's not really going to be a long authors note this time, since I couldn't really think of anything to say.

Once again, thanks for all of the reviews! They really help me know if people are liking my story or not, and inspire me to continue! ^_^

Now, RaisingHeartExelion asked if Sora's mark was the same one that the protagonist has in the Stardust Accelerator Video game. The answer to that is yes, it is. I'm happy that someone picked up on that, since I wasn't sure if I described the mark correctly... ^^'

* * *

"Wha- ?! He's not here!"

I groaned, pulling the covers up over my head. I was enjoying my calm, relaxing sleep when Lua woke me up with his screaming. He was even aware that I wasn't a morning person, and he did it anyway. Rolling over onto my right side, I looked over towards the alarm clock that was on my bedside table, and growled when I saw the time. It was 7:00 in the morning, and I wasn't happy with being woken up at this time. Grumpily, I got out of bed and walked over to the door just as I heard Luka walk down the stairs.

"What is it, Lua?" she asked sleepily as I walked up behind her, looking at Lua with a tired look on my face.

"Yeah Lua. Why did you wake us up with your screaming?" I added.

"Luka, Sora-nee! Yusei's gone!" he said urgently, as he ran up to us. Though I was already aware that Yusei had left, since I had seen him leave.

Luka was more awake at this point, or at least she looked like it. I was still really tired, so I started rubbing my eyes and yawning.

"So, he left after all," she said calmly, looking out the window.

"Yeah, he did. I saw him go down the elevator last night," I added, yawning in the middle of my sentence. Lua looked at me.

"Why didn't you tell us, Sora-nee?!" he asked rather loudly. I gave him a deadpanned look, before yawning once again.

"He left after you guys were asleep, and I didn't want to wake you up," I told him calmly, before I looked towards the table where the twins' fixed duel disks were. I noticed that Luka had seen them, and started to walk towards the table while Lua just ran back and forth wondering why Yusei would leave.

Luka picked up her duel disk, and turned to look at her brother. "Lua, look at this," she said, while holding up her duel disk. Her brother ran over to the table after seeing the duel disk, and picked his up as well. He lifted it up and down a few times.

"It's lighter!" he said as he put it on his arm, turning it after the strap had closed. "Look! It fits me like a glove!"

Luka held hers carefully, looking like she was shocked. "He… must have modified them so that they'd fit us."

I nodded, though neither twin was looking in my direction. "He did. When I came down last night so that I could make myself some hot chocolate, I saw him modifying them for you two."

"Impressive, he can do anything, huh?" Lua said in awe, still looking at his duel disk. I just shook my head at him. I could tell that Lua's hero worship was going to appear soon.

"He sure was odd," Luka stated, staring off into space, causing both Lua and I to look at her. "I would have like to talk to him a bit longer, but I guess that it's a bit too late now."

I shook my head. "I don't really think it's too late," I said, causing the two of them to look towards me. I raised my head to look out the window. "I'm sure that we'll see him again, after all."

"And Sora-nee just said something weird again," Lua said, causing me to turn towards him with a look on my face.

"What was that, Lua?" I asked him sweetly. He gulped.

"Umm… what I meant was that you said something… cool! That's right! You said something cool!" I snickered at the panicked look on his face, putting my arm around his neck and giving him a slight noogie before I let him go.

"Sora-nee!" He whined, causing me to start laughing.

The video phone started ringing, causing all three of us to stop what we were doing and look towards it. After hearing it ring twice, I walked over and answered it.

The screen lit up and showed a boy with chin length brown hair with red eyes. He was wearing glasses, along with a white shirt and blue suspenders, finishing it off with a red bow tie underneath the shirt collar.

"Good morning, Ms. Sora," he said with a smile on his face.

I smiled. "Good morning, Tenpei. I'm guessing you want to talk to Lua?"

He nodded. "If that would be possible, then yes."

I turned around, only to see Lua running towards me. I quickly stepped out of the way just so that I wouldn't get pushed over.

"Oh, Tenpei! You're early!"

"You promised today. You didn't forget, did you?" Tenpei replied flatly.

"He probably did, Tenpei. You know how Lua is," I said to him as Lua was thinking.

"Let's see…" He didn't really get to say anything else, since Tenpei decided to answer his own question.

"The Black Rose Witch!" He yelled at the screen, breaking me out of my happy mood. There was only one person that I knew was called that, and I honestly wasn't keen on seeing her since we didn't really get along. But, if these two were thinking of doing what I think they were, I knew I couldn't let them go alone. I sighed quietly. It looks like I'll end up seeing her again, I thought.

"Oh, right, right! We're going to the Daimon Area to beat the Black Rose Witch, right?" Lua asked sheepishly, confirming my suspicions.

I spoke up. "If you two are going there, then I'm going as well."

They both turned towards me to protest, but I quickly cut them off. "I've been there before, and it's not a place for kids to be wandering around alone. Besides, isn't the Witch really good at dueling?" I didn't even want to call her that word. After all, she was human, even if she was different from the others, like me.

They saw the finality in my eyes, and sighed in defeat. There was no convincing me to let them go alone.

Tenpei lifted up his arms to show off his deck. "I built the strongest deck so that I could defeat the Witch!" he declared proudly. I mentally shook my head at him, but I couldn't help but smile. While I knew there was no way that he could defeat her, it was rather impressive that he was so determined.

"Ooh, awesome!" Lua exclaimed, amazed.

Tenpei nodded, lowering his arms. "Eyewitnesses talking about the Witches deck have popped up online. I used those to build this deck," he said.

I mentally sighed when I heard that. I wasn't honestly surprised, but at the same time, I was rather disappointed. What he was doing wasn't playing honestly, and to say that I wasn't a fan of it was an understatement. I always tried to play fairly, but sometimes it was hard due to some of my monsters' effects, especially Clear Wing's, which is why I rarely used it. It was also probably why I lost all the time, but I would rather have that happen than be accused of cheating due to a monsters effect because someone couldn't take a loss.

Lua seemed amazed and pumped up, so he raised his arm, along with his newly customized duel disk into the air. Tenpei noticed the difference right away.

"Huh? Isn't that one slightly different from your usual one?" He asked, pointing at Lua's duel disk.

Lua started to look rather arrogant. "You could say that! I had my duel disk cusmatized!"

I sighed when I heard Lua's mispronunciation. Both Luka and I looked at each other before saying in unison, "You mean 'customized', Lua."

Tenpei looked amazed at this. "Wait, what? You mean you did that, Lua?"

I had a bad feeling that I would have to stop Lua from telling Tenpei about Yusei, and I was right. "Well, I met this awesome person yesterday!"

I gave Luka a look while I carefully moved Lua away from the phone. I carefully leaned down on my knees as I looked into Lua's eyes. "Lua, Yusei might be pursued. What if Tenpei informed someone?"

I watched as realization appeared on Lua's face. "Oh yeah!" he exclaimed quietly.

"What's wrong Lua, Ms. Sora?" Tenpei asked, confused as to why Lua and I had moved away from the video phone.

I walked up to the screen with a smile on my face. "Oh, it's nothing, Tenpei. We haven't eaten breakfast yet, so we'll meet you outside your house, ok?"

Tenpei nodded, and I shut off the phone.

"We have to keep him a secret," Luka told her brother sternly.

Lua looked disappointed, as he lowered his head down towards his duel disk. "I know, but I sure would like to see him again."

* * *

It was around an hour later, and all three of us had changed out of our pyjamas and into our normal outfits. I was putting my deck in my duel disk so that I could take it with me when I went down to the Daimon Area. I stood up, putting my duel disk on my left arm. My duel disk was a deep blue color, with turquoise gems on it. I had originally gotten it with these colors since they reminded me of Clear Wing.

I had made some food earlier for Luka, in case she got hungry, as she wasn't going to be coming with us when we went down to the Daimon Area. Lua and I had already eaten, since I had figured that we would be down there for a while. After all, I knew that both Lua and Tenpei wouldn't stop until they found her.

I was broken out of my thoughts by the sound of the doorbell ringing, and I walked over to answer it. I opened the door to find Tenpei outside, which was quite surprising.

"Tenpei? I thought we were going to meet you outside your house," I stated.

"Yes, we were, but I wanted to show my deck to Lua so we could discuss strategies," he told me.

I mentally shook my head at him. There was no way that I would ever let him duel her, especially after what I saw during my time at the Movement, since most of the injuries I saw were caused by her.

"We should probably get going, since we have to go all the way to the Daimon Area. But you guys can discuss strategies on the way," I told him, before turning around. "Lua, it's time to go!"

"Alright, Sora-nee!" he called back, and I heard him running down the stairs. Sure enough, about a moment later, Lua came running towards us, with his now customized duel disk on his arm. He quickly put his shoes on, and started talking with Tenpei as they walked towards the elevator. I followed them, waving at Luka as I left.

* * *

I had forgotten how bad it was here, I thought as I followed the boys through the Daimon Area. To say this place was run down was an understatement. And I actually felt bad for the poor people who had to call this area home, since they couldn't go into the city due to their criminal marks. I could tell that some of the people recognized me from my previous trips here, as they just glanced at me before going back to what they were doing, leaving me and the kids alone for the most part. Some of them were curious as to why kids were even here, and their eyes followed us as we walked down the street. I just ignored them the best I could, but I could tell that Lua and Tenpei were slightly disconcerted by all the looks.

Eventually, we got to an abandoned amusement park, and it was rather run-down, since everything was destroyed. I was pretty sure that it was because of her, considering she had been making a lot of appearances here lately. There were a lot of people grouped around an area, and from the sounds of things, there was a duel going on. Lua and Tenpei ran over to ask one of the spectators something, as I looked around and saw Yusei standing away from the group of spectators. I started to walk over to him, and he must have seen my blue hair, since he looked up.

"Hey," I said calmly, waving at him. I stopped right in front of him, and I noticed that there were several people behind him that I hadn't noticed before, so I waved at them as well.

"I wasn't expecting to see you here," Yusei said calmly, as I just shrugged.

"Lua and Tenpei wanted to come here to duel someone, and I just tagged along to make sure that they were safe," I told him, before turning my head towards the people behind him. "Who are they?"

"Oh, this is Tenzen Yanagi," Yusei said, motioning to the short old man with a gold tooth and white hair, along with a criminal mark on his right cheek. "Jin Himuro," he motioned to the tall man with tanned skin, who had dark turquoise hair that was spiked up, and he had two criminal marks on his face, one on each side of his nose. "And Saiga," he motioned to the last man, who had a small moustache and brown hair, who was wearing some kind of cowboy outfit.

"I'm Sora Sakamoto. It's nice to meet you all," I said as Lua and Tenpei came running over to us.

"Tenpei, he's the one who cusmatized my duel disk!" Lua exclaimed, before turning towards me. I didn't bother to correct his mispronunciation this time. "Sora-nee! Why didn't you tell me he was here?"

"You were preoccupied with asking the spectators," I told him simply, before turning my attention back to Yusei.

"So… What's up?" Lua asked as I put my arms behind my back.

"Why are you here? This isn't a place for kids," Yusei asked in response.

"It's ok! After all, we've got Sora-nee to protect us!" Lua said enthusiastically.

"And Luka?" Yusei asked, turning to face me.

"She's back at the house," I answered. "I can trust her to be alone for a bit, unlike Lua."

"Sora-nee!" Lua protested. I ignored him.

By this time, Tenpei had finally caught up to Lua, and the first thing he noticed was that Yusei had a criminal marker on his face. "Hey, Lua… that's a marker, isn't it?" he asked nervously.

Lua just smiled back at him. "But, he did this for me!" He said, motioning to his duel disk.

"What are you three doing here?" Yanagi asked with a smile

"We're looking for the Black Rose Witch!" Lua said happily.

Yusei turned back to his friends. " Oh, Sora and the boy with turquoise hair are the people from the Tops who took me in and gave me shelter." He said, pointing to the two of us.

"I'm Lua." Lua said, introducing himself, before motioning to his friend. "And this is Tenpei, my best friend."

"Umm… Hello," Tenpei said in a nervous tone.

"Oh right, Tenpei!" Lua said, as an idea came to him. "Why don't you duel against him? He's super strong! What about you, Sora-nee? After all, you brought your duel disk and deck!"

I looked down at my duel disk. "I don't know, Lua. I'm not a big fan of duelling, and we've been down here for awhile…" I trailed off, still looking down when I noticed something in Yusei's hand. "Is that a…"

Lua followed my gaze, and upon seeing that it was an invitation to the Fortune Cup, gasped and pointed at it. "Ooh, Yusei! That's an invitation to the Fortune Cup!" He said excitedly as Yusei held the invitation out to him.

"So, you're entering as well?" I questioned, still looking at the envelope before raising my head to look at him.

"Yeah," he responded. I mentally frowned. He doesn't sound that excited about it though, I thought to myself. Did something happen?

Lua got excited and began jumping up and down. "Alright! I get to duel against you again!" He stopped jumping up and down, and pointed at Yusei with a serious look on his face. "I won't lose this time."

"When did you get your invitation?" I asked Yusei.

"Just after I left the Tops," he replied.

I gave a small smile. "It looks like we'll be able to have a duel, then."

Yusei was about to respond, when he grunted in pain and fell to his knees, grasping his right arm. Seconds later, my own right arm started to burn as well, and I fell to my knees next to him.

"Sora-nee!" Lua gasped as he ran over to me and knelt down.

"It's the same as that one time…" I heard Yusei say, causing me to turn towards him.

"That one time?" Yanagi asked.

"When that crimson dragon appeared," Yusei said, opening up his right eye.

 _A crimson dragon?_ I thought to myself as I held my arm in pain. I remembered seeing a crimson dragon appear in front of me when I was little, and that was the same time when my mark appeared. But there's no way he could be talking about that one, right?

Yusei's friends seemed to be surprised by what he said, as they gave a small gasp.

"It's the Witch!" A cry sounded through the air, causing both Lua and Tenpei to look over, trying to spot her.

"The Witch? She really showed up? Where? Where?" Lua asked excitedly, while Tenpei looked nervous, and I couldn't blame him. After all, I had seen first hand the amount of damage that she can cause.

All of the spectators started to run in our direction, screaming "It's the Witch!" or "We'll get offed! Run!"

That was when a little hurricane of wind appeared in one spot near a duelist who had his cards out. I wanted to move in front of Lua and Tenpei to protect them, but with my arm still burning, I wouldn't be able to.

"So, she's here now, huh?" One of Yusei's friends asked, but I couldn't tell which one.

"She?" Himuro asked. I would've glared at him for that comment, since it sounded like he didn't believe that she was this powerful if she was a girl, but I was more focused on the tornado that appeared.

"We'll get dragged into this. We need to run," Blister said.

Just as he said that, thorn roots began to break through the ground, and lodge themselves into buildings, frightening the people and causing them to run away in terror. I didn't notice that one of them was coming our way until it had picked me up and pulled me towards the tornado.

"Sora-nee!" I heard Lua scream. I managed to get a glimpse of his and the others' faces right before I was pulled in, but I couldn't tell what their expressions looked like because I was soon inside the tornado. Due to the dust that was in the air, I didn't see something coming towards me until it hit me in the head, causing my vision to fade to black.

* * *

I groaned as I opened my eyes, flinching when I felt a pain at the back of my head. I carefully sat up, trying not to aggravate my head anymore than necessary. Once I had sat up, I looked around the room I found myself in, trying to recognize anything. I spotted my duel disk and deck on the tablet next to me, but that was really all that I recognized.

 _How did I get here?_ I thought, before I remembered being grabbed by a thorn root back in the Daimon area. I sighed quietly. _Well, it looks like she brought me here. Probably to try and get me to return to the Arcadia Movement._

Just then, I heard the door open, and turned to look at a magenta haired girl wearing a low cut red corset with short white puffy sleeves and a high collar. She was holding an ice pack in her hand, and as soon as I made eye contact with her, my right arm started to burn once again. I looked down to remove my armband, and saw that my mark had returned, glowing bright red. I heard her gasp in shock when she saw the mark on my arm, and I looked over to her, only to see a look of hatred aimed towards it.

"So you have one of these wretched marks as well," she muttered as she looked down at her own right arm.

"So what if I do, Aki?" I asked her, slightly confused as to where this hatred came from, as I felt my mark disappear off of my arm.

Aki Izayoi and I had never really gotten along. She was consumed by hatred for the world because of the fact that everyone thought of her as a monster, while I understood that it was just human nature to fear something that you didn't understand and was potentially dangerous. She also believed everything Divine said without a second thought and received personal training from him to help control her powers. Though I did notice that the training she went through never actually helped her control her powers. In fact, it was like the sessions only encouraged her hatred of the world. She basically worshipped him, and now that I think about it, it was rather disturbing. Frankly, something about Divine just rubbed me the wrong way, which is why I never trusted him. To be honest though, I didn't hate her. I just wasn't particularly fond of the fact that she showed no remorse for the injuries that she caused.

I was broken out of my thoughts when the ice pack that Aki had in her hand was shoved in front of my face. I blinked a few times, before I took it from her and placed it at the back of my head, feeling it start to numb the pain instantly.

As I was icing my head, I turned towards Aki, who was looking at me intensely. "Why did you run away from the Movement? Divine was worried about you when he checked your room and you weren't there," she asked me.

I turned away from her, looking towards the wall. "I just didn't feel like I could call it a home anymore," I said quietly. It wasn't the whole reason why I left, but it was a factor of it.

Aki genuinely looked confused by what I said. "But why? Divine could've helped you control your powers-"

I cut her off. "That's just it, Aki. He 'could've' helped. But he didn't. As soon as he found out that I wasn't like the rest of you, it seemed like he just forgot about me. All because I wasn't able to make a duel monster real and inflict damage, I was abandoned again. I wasn't able to even learn anything about my powers, since I was the only one who had them. If you think being a psychic duelist is hard, being one that can't do anything else except for heal minor injuries is even harder. It didn't help that no one wanted to talk to me simply because I was different. Why would I want to return to a place that I never felt welcome at?"

After I said that, I stood up, putting the ice pack on the table and grabbed my duel disk, placing it on my arm once again. I looked back towards Aki, who looked to be in shock, not that I would blame her after what I just said, before turning and walking towards the door. Though I stopped about halfway there, and said quietly, "Besides, I finally found some people who accept me for my personality, along with a place that I can actually call my home. Why would I want to leave them?" After I said that, I started walking once again, and right as I reached for the doorknob, I heard Aki say something.

"But what will you do when your friends find out about your powers?"

I froze right before my hand touched the doorknob. That was something I hadn't thought of yet. How would they react to finding out about my powers? There was a chance that they would react the same way that everyone else before them had, but the more I thought about it, the more unlikely it seemed. After all, the twins had taken me into their home when I was asleep because it was about to rain, and they had accepted Yusei as well even though he had a mark. As for Yusei, he was from the Satellite, and while I didn't know him very well, I had a feeling that he wouldn't judge me because of my powers.

"I'm not sure right now," I said honestly, turning back to face her. "And honestly, I have no idea how they'll react when they find out. But worrying about it now won't help me. After all, I have much more pressing matters to worry about, like the Fortune Cup."

"You're entering as well?" Aki asked, pulling out her own envelope and looking at it.

I sighed. "It's not like I had a choice, but yes." I paused for a second, before turning back to the doorknob once again. "I have to go. Lua and the others are probably worried."

I opened the door and stepped outside, with the door shutting behind me. I was rather surprised that Aki didn't fight much to get me to stay. Though I had a feeling that it was because of what I had said about the movement. I moved away from the door, and started walking back towards the Tops, or as I had come to call it, home.

* * *

The whole place was quiet by the time I got back. Since I figured that the twins were already asleep, as it was currently approaching midnight, I took my shoes off quietly. I started walking towards my room when I heard a slight shuffling noise behind me, before I heard a gasp. I had just enough time to turn around before two blurs barrelled into me. I managed to remain standing, and I looked down to see both Lua and Luka holding onto me tightly. Sighing slightly, I carefully pulled them away from me so that I could kneel down to look them in the eye.

"Sorry for worrying you two," I said quietly.

"You're ok, though, right?" Luka asked me. When I nodded, she gave a small smile. "That's good."

"Yeah," I replied. "By why aren't you two asleep? It's rather late."

"We were really worried about you, so we couldn't sleep," Lua told me as he yawned and rubbed his eyes. A few seconds later, his sister did the same thing. I smiled softly at the two of them.

"Well, now that I'm back, it's time to sleep. Especially with the Fortune Cup starting tomorrow," I said as I started walking up the stairs, with the twins following me.

Later, I was lying in my bed staring at the ceiling. I raised my right arm up above my head, and looked at the spot where the mark had appeared. I wondered why I had been chosen to have it, and if it had something to do with the dragon I had seen when I was little. Sighing quietly to myself, I lowered my arm and rolled over onto my side, falling asleep soon after.

* * *

...So yeah, that happened.

I tried to make the discussion between Aki and Sora fairly realistic but I'm not sure how it turned out...

Before I end this note, I'm going to say one thing about the upcoming chapters, since I'm starting the Fortune Cup Arc.

I'm probably only going to write out a few of them, since I really don't like the idea of changing between 1st and 3rd perspectives. Basically, if Sora is a part of it, or if she is near it, then I will write it out. Also, if a duel takes up more than one episode, I will combine it into one chapter so that the story can keep moving along without having a lot of multi part duels.

I'm probably not going to post the next chapter until I get most of the Fortune Cup arc done, so that I could post the chapters fairly quickly.

Until next chapter,

Akane~


	4. The Start of the Fortune Cup

Hey Guys, Akane here~

So, this is the start of the Fortune Cup! I've put the first two duels of the first round in this chapter, and the next chapter will have the remaining duels.

I split it up since I didn't want to have the entire first round in one chapter, as it would be rather long. And I wanted to keep the chapters around 4,000 words, at least until the Dark Signers Arc. Though this chapter is under that number, for some reason. And while I'm not entirely happy with how this chapter came out, as it's somewhat boring, I decided to post it anyway.

Also, thanks for all of the favorites, follows, and reviews this story has gotten! I never expected that this would gain a following, since it was just a random idea that popped into my head back in July.

Finally, sorry for the delay in posting this. I've had it finished for almost a month, but I got distracted due to watching Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, and playing Pokemon Omega Ruby and Super Mystery Dungeon certainly didn't help...

* * *

I twitched.

"Okay! How do I look, Yusei? Spitting image of Luka, and I right?"

The twins and I had met up with Yusei inside of the stadium once we had arrived, when Lua had proceeded to wander off, only to reappear wearing his sisters' clothes, along with blush and red lipstick. I didn't even think that I wanted to know where he got that make-up.

I turned my head slightly, only to see Yusei's normal blank face, though I could see that he was having trouble believing what he was seeing. I couldn't really blame him, as Lua looked ridiculous, especially with that make-up on.

"I wouldn't expect anything less from twins. I can't tell a bit of difference," Yanagi said, apparently not paying attention to the ridiculous make-up.

"I am right! I am right! I am right!" Lua exclaimed, jumping up and down before his sister kicked him in the ankle.

"I don't act like that," she told him calmly, blushing in embarrassment while she was disguised in an orange jacket that went down to her ankles with a yellow hat on her head.

Lua, once he recovered from getting kicked, waved her off. "Oh, c'mon, lighten up. I'll get it right, so don't worry about it!" He turned towards me. "What do you think, Sora-nee?"

"You look ridiculous with that lipstick and blush," I said flatly, grabbing a small napkin that I had brought with me and moving over to Lua so I could get rid of that make-up. "Besides, Luka doesn't wear that stuff anyway."

"Sora-nee!" he whined as I stepped back, holding the make-up covered napkin.

"Now you look like Luka," I told him as I walked over to a trash can to throw away the napkin, now that it had served its purpose. I walked back over to Yusei, so that I was standing beside him.

Luka pouted at me for a few seconds, before walking over to both Yusei and I like a girl would. Or at least he tried to, but it looked really exaggerated. "Now then, Yusei, Sora-nee, shall we depart?" he said in a girly voice. I cringed. That just sounded so fake, it wasn't even funny.

"Let's just go," I told him, before turning and walking down the hallway.

* * *

I stood in between Yusei and Lua, my right hand fiddling with the edge of the sleeveless dress that I had decided to wear. I was rather nervous, since I had never been in front of a giant crowd before, so I had no idea how to deal with it. Yusei must've noticed my fidgeting, since I felt a hand grab mine and move it away from my dress. I was slightly shocked as I looked up at him, but I realized that he was trying to reassure me, so I calmed down slightly and squeezed his hand back once before he let go. I felt the platform that we were standing on start to rise up, and I quickly schooled my expression into a calm mask so that the others wouldn't be able to see that I was still slightly nervous.

"Ohh! Here we go! Here we go!" Lua exclaimed as we neared the top. "Whoa, it's Red Demon's!"

As soon as the platform stopped rising, the crowd started cheering when they saw all of the contestants. I looked up slightly to see that there were screens all around the outside of the stadium that were showing the pictures of all of the duelists, but I had a feeling that the cheering wouldn't last.

"Hey, there's someone with a marker there!"

 _Yep,_ I thought to myself as I heard that. _I knew it._

"You're right!"

I'd rather have them pick me than that guy!"

"He must have stolen someone's invitation!"

I clenched my fists when I heard the last two comments. Yusei didn't deserve this! Hell, no one deserved this!

"Pay it no mind," I heard Yusei say.

 _He must have the patience of a saint to ignore all of those hateful comments,_ I thought to myself as I looked at him from the corner of my eye. I was rather tempted to glare at the crowd, but I decided against it. After all, it wasn't their fault that they had lived with this prejudice for so long that it was like second nature to them.

"Ladies and gentlemen in attendance!" I heard come through the speakers, causing me to turn around only to see a tall, dark-skinned male with black shoulder-length hair who was wearing a rather interesting outfit. It was some kind of dark olive green armoured top that only covered the top of his chest, with belts that attached to the belt on his white pants. He had two gold armbands, one around each arm along with black fingerless gloves that had gold studded bands around his wrists, and his boots were the same color as his shirt with similar gold studded bands around his ankles.

"My name is Bommer. As a duelist here, I would like to ask exactly what it is you all see," He pointed to Yusei. "This man is undoubtedly a duelist, selected under the same conditions we were! If one has cards, marker or no marker, they are the same as everyone else! The people standing here should be ashamed of nothing! Rather, it is all of you, looking at him through your trivial rose-coloured glasses, who are nothing short of vicious!" He finished, turning around and walking back towards the rest of the contestants.

I was surprised by Bommer's words, and I agreed with everything that he said. I heard the sound of clapping, and I turned towards the raised platform to see Director Goodwin was the source of it. Soon, the whole stadium was filled with the sounds of clapping. As the clapping settled down, Bomber turned towards Goodwin, and bowed slightly before walking towards the rest of the contestants, giving the MC back his microphone as he passed by.

Goodwin stood up and walked forward. "Thank you for those empowering words, Bommer-kun. The reason I provided such an opportunity was indeed for all the reasons you have spoken. I am Rex Goodwin, the man in charge of Neo Domino City Public Security Maintenance Bureau. And, I am the man who planned this whole grand duelling festival in appreciation for the maintenance of daily public security. To duelists, neither social status nor the gap between rich and poor matter," he raised his right arm into the air. "True equality rests right here."

Cheering broke out across the stadium, though I didn't join in, as I was more concerned about who my opponent would be. Luckily, I didn't have to wait long to find out.

The monitor behind the MC lit up, shuffling the pictures of all the duelists between four brackets. "Now, here are your match-ups for the first round!" The MC announced to the crowd.

 _His hair looks ridiculous,_ I thought, having just noticed his rather odd hair style. _How on earth does he get his hair to stay like that?_

The monitor stopped shuffling names, and the match-ups appeared.

Luka (Lua) vs. Bommer

Aki vs. deLauncebeaux (who was wearing armor, for some reason)

Yusei vs. the cloaked guy called Shira

Sora (Me) vs. Professor Frank.

 _I guess that isn't so bad,_ I thought. _But I'm not sure I like going last._

And then I froze when I saw who I would go up against if I won my duel. Aki Izayoi.

 _Well, shit. I'm not really looking forward to that._

* * *

All of the duelists were led to a lounge where we could sit and wait for our time to duel. It was a fairy big room, and it had a coffee machine, which made me very happy. There were two long glass tables, and a few blue upholstered couches. Most of the duelists sat on the benches, though Aki and Bomber sat at the glass tables.

I sat next to Yusei and watched as Lua made the final adjustments to his deck before sliding it into his duel disk.

"Yusei, let's meet in the finals!" Lua said, determined to duel Yusei once again.

"Sure," Yusei said calmly.

"That's only possible if you beat your first opponent, Lua," I said, drawing their attention to me. "So you'll have to try your best."

"I know that, Sora-nee," he told me, before turning back to Yusei. "I remember what you said, Yusei. I won't duel in any way that's selfish anymore!"

Yusei nodded. "If you trust in your cards, they'll answer back."

"Lua," I said, drawing his attention once again. "Try to stay calm. That way you can change your strategies and adapt to your opponent if you have to."

He nodded, before standing up. "Mm-hmm! I'm off, then!" He said as he ran off. I watched him until I couldn't see him anymore, and then I sighed.

"What's wrong?" I turned to Yusei.

"I really hate to say this, but I think Lua's going to lose," I said quietly. "I just hope that he won't be that disappointed when it happens."

"What makes you think that?" Yusei asked.

"Lua's still a kid, and his opponent is not only older than him, but also has more experience as well," I started, looking up towards the ceiling. "Plus, the one time I duelled him, I won, and he didn't take it so well. He was rather upset, and didn't talk to me for a few hours afterwards." I turned towards Yusei once again. "I couldn't really blame him though. It was the first time he had gone up against a deck like mine, so he had no idea who to deal with it."

"'A deck like yours'?" Yusei questioned. I could tell that he was curious.

"Dragons," I said simply.

"Ahh," It was quiet for a few seconds before he spoke again. "Are you ok?"

"Huh?" I tilted my head to the side, confused by what he was asking.

"You were kidnapped by the Black Rose yesterday," he clarified. "Are you ok?"

"Oh," I gasped quietly, now realizing what he was asking about. "I'm fine. I was knocked unconscious by something hitting the back of my head, but the only side effect from that was a sore spot at the back of my head, which I can easily deal with."

Yusei didn't look convinced by what I said, but I didn't blame him. It did seem rather odd that the only injury I got after being pulled into a tornado and getting knocked unconscious was just a sore spot on the back of my head.

"I'm fine, really," I insisted. It was rather odd; having people worry about me. Especially since I had never really let anyone get close enough to me for them to actually worry. I mentally shrugged. _I guess that I'll just have to get used to it._

I turned away from Yusei, and towards the monitor on the wall, only to notice that Lua's duel was about to begin. "It's starting."

* * *

I sighed as I watched Lua's Life Points hit 0. Lua's duel with Bommer hadn't gone well for him, but I was impressed with the fact that he had managed to get Bomber's Life Points down to almost half.

I stood up from the couch and began to head out of the room so that I could go find Lua during the interval between duels. I figured that he needed some cheering up, especially after what had just happened. I heard Yusei stand up and start to walk behind me, so I figured that he wanted to meet up with Lua as well.

I walked out into the hallway and headed towards the bathrooms, since I figured that he wanted to change back into his own clothes instead of wearing his sisters for the rest of the day. Both Yusei and I came to a stop in the corridor that was rather close to the bathrooms when we heard footsteps heading towards us. Soon enough I spotted Lua and the others walking towards us, with his shoulders slumped. I walked over to him and knelt down, looking him in the eye.

"You did really well, especially for getting your opponent down to almost half their starting Life Points," I said with a small smile on my face.

"All you need to do is win your duels later on. The experience you got from losing will always prove useful," Yusei said wisely, leaning against the wall.

Lua sighed slightly, but quickly picked himself up. "Just make sure that you don't lose, Yusei, Sora-nee! We'll be cheering you on from the stands!"

"I'll do my best not to, but I'm not going to make any guarantees," I responded, standing up as I did so.

The sound of clicking heels coming from down the hallway caught my attention, so I turned around only to see Aki walking down the hallway towards us. I noticed that when Aki made contact with Yusei that she glared at him, while he just stared back at her normally. She then kept walking, and Lua, Luka and Tenpei had to get out of the way so that they wouldn't trampled.

"What's the deal with her?" Lua asked angrily. I looked in the direction that Aki went before turning back to the others.

"I'll be right back," I said, before I ran off after Aki.

"Wait, Sora-nee…!" Lua and Luka called after me, but their voices faded away as I ran down the hall.

"Aki!" I called to her, causing her to turn around in shock before she schooled her expression back into a neutral one.

"What do you want?" she asked, and I cringed at the blankness in her voice.

"I know that we're not on the best of terms, considering what happened yesterday. And while I know that you won't need it, I just wanted to say 'Good Luck'," I told her, holding out my hand and I watched her eyes widen slightly. "Just… be careful, ok?"

She looked at me seriously for a few seconds, before she glared at me and walked away. I watched her walk away and lowered my arm so that it was by my side once again. _You truly are like me when I was younger,_ I thought sadly. _But where I was able to put the hatred I had for others behind me eventually, you take your hatred out on others instead…_

* * *

When I got back to the lounge, the screen was showing the arena once again, and I could see that the people were shouting. Yusei was sitting on one of the couches again, so I went over and sat next to him. While he didn't say anything, I had a feeling that he knew I was there, though he didn't take his eyes off Aki.

"Why are you staring at her?" I asked him, though I already had a feeling that I knew.

"It feels like I've seen her before our meeting in the hallway," he replied, not moving his eyes away from the screen.

 _That's because you have. You just don't know it yet,_ I thought, staring at the screen intently.

* * *

Shortly after the beginning of the duel, Aki managed to summon her signature monster, the Black Rose Dragon. The second she did, both Yusei and I felt pain in our arms again, so we both grabbed them. Yusei took his eyes off the screen to look down at his arm, while I kept looking at Aki's dragon that had appeared on the screen.

"So she summoned it…" I muttered quietly to myself.

"Black Rose Dragon…" I heard Yusei say as we heard footsteps walking towards us, before blocking my view of the screen.

"It's a dragon of ill omen that brings forth destruction. It seems that the two of you are familiar with it," Bommer said as he looked down at us.

 _Of course I am,_ I thought to myself as I watched the duel. I had to live near her for most of my life at Arcadia, and I had to watch many of her duels end in wins because of this dragon.

* * *

deLauncebeaux had just nearly wiped out all of Aki's Life Points with one attack, leaving her with just a meagre 50.

"I figure the match is over," Bomber said when he saw the life point difference between the two of them.

"Yes it is," I said calmly. "But Aki will be the victor, not deLauncebeaux."

"What?" Bommer said, looking shocked.

Then, Aki used Black Garden's effect to bring back her Black Rose Dragon to the field.

"Just watch. It's going to be over in a minute," I frowned slightly, knowing what Aki was going to do. She had beaten me the same way, mostly because I never used Clear Wing against her.

* * *

Aki was standing, while deLauncebeaux had fallen. I was frowning when I saw her emotionless face as she looked at the burn marks she had left on him. It looked like Divine had gotten to her more than I thought. I was still holding my arm, and Yusei was doing the same thing.

"Wretched mark, huh?" he said, staring at the screen.

"What's wrong? Not feeling well?" Bommer asked the both of us, but I ignored him as I listened to the crowd start shouting and screaming at Aki, calling her a witch, along with telling her that she should get out of the city.

"Aki…" I muttered, tightening the grip on my arm as I looked at her emotionless face. I knew that she was paying attention to the horrid things that the crowd was shouting at her, and I knew that it was only fuelling her hatred. I wasn't entirely sure what I could do to try and help her, since I had a feeling that she wouldn't change unless someone reached out to her. I really hoped that someone would do that soon, as she didn't deserve this...

* * *

This chapter's kinda short, but it would've been even shorter had I not combined the first duels into one.

At least Sora revealed the reason that she doesn't hate Aki, since Aki is very similar to a much younger Sora, at least in terms of behavior and emotions.

Sora's duel is up next, and hopefully I'll get around to editing it soon, in between working on the next few chapters so that I can finish this arc.

Well, until next chapter,

Akane~


	5. The End of the First Round

Hey Guys, Akane here!

Well, here it is! Sora's first duel!~ ^_^

RaisingHeartExelion helped me with editing the duel scene, so a very big thank you goes to her!

* * *

I had followed Yusei when he left the duelist lounge shortly after Aki's duel had ended, since I had been curious for a while now about to maintain a D-Wheel, as well as how they worked.

"'Reaper Reborn'?" Yusei asked as he turned around from his D-Wheel to look at Himuro, who had walked in shortly after both Yusei and I had entered the garage.

"People who duel against him are too afraid to ever duel again," Himuro said with his arms crossed. "He's a cruel D-Wheeler that's professionally known."

I rolled my eyes when I heard that. To give up what you love to do because of one loss seemed rather pathetic to me, especially if you worked so hard to become a professional duelist.

Himuro looked at Yusei as he slid his deck into the gauntlet on his left arm. "Are you using that card?"

 _That card?_ I thought, tilting my head to the side. _What card is he talking about?_

Yusei looked over at Himuro for a second before turning to face the wall. "I'm not using Stardust. I'll only use Stardust when it's time to settle things with Jack."

"Stardust?" I asked, voicing my curiosity.

"My Dragon card," Yusei told me.

"So, it's like your ace card?" I looked at him, and he nodded in response. "I guess that means that you won't use it against me, then…" I understood why though, and I was perfectly fine with that.

"If we both end up in the finals, then I might use it," Yusei said, turning to face me.

I slid off of the table I was sitting on. "Ok. I guess I'll try to use my favourite dragon, then. Even if I don't particularly want to. It's only fair," I said as I headed to the door. "I'm going to head back to the lounge."

"You aren't going to go sit with the twins and the others?" Yusei asked as I reached for the doorknob.

I shook my head. "I can't really handle loud noises very well, since I tend to get rather nasty headaches. It's better if I'm in a quiet area away from the noise." I waved at them before I exited the garage.

* * *

When I got back to the lounge, Bommer and Professor Frank were still in their seats, but I did notice that Aki wasn't there. While I was slightly disappointed that I couldn't talk to her, at the same time I was relieved. It was better that she wasn't here right now, especially after all of the hateful things that the crowd was shouting at her.

I walked over to the far wall and grabbed my duel disk that I had stashed there when I first arrived, before walking back to the couch I had been sitting at previously. Since I was going to be duelling next, I figured that it wouldn't hurt to go through my deck one final time, just to make sure that it was ready. As I was doing so, I felt the eyes of someone behind me looking in my direction. Cautiously, I turned my head slightly to see that Professor Frank was staring at me intently. It was slightly unnerving, and it definitely wasn't helping my nervousness at all.

We met each others eyes for a split second, before he turned away. I released a barely noticeable sigh of relief when I saw him look away, and turned back to my cards. I wasn't sure what kind of deck he was going to use, and it was making me anxious, along with the fact that I would have to duel in front of a bunch of people wasn't making the situation any better for my nerves. Collecting my deck together once again, I breathed deeply, closing my eyes in the process. My panicking wasn't helping the situation.

"Nervous?" I heard Bommer say, causing me to open my eyes and look at him.

A faint dusting of pink appeared on my cheeks. "Is it really that obvious?" I asked him sheepishly.

"You've been fidgeting since you got back," he told me. I looked down, and sure enough, my left leg was bouncing up and down.

"I'm not really a fan of being in front of a large crowd, and the fact that this tournament is my first one really isn't helping things," I said quietly.

"Ignore the crowd. Taking your attention off of your opponent could mean the difference between victory and defeat," he advised.

I took his advice to heart, since it was pretty good. I gave a small smile. "Thanks. That really helps."

I saw the screen flash out of the corner of my eye, causing me to turn towards it. "Looks like Yusei's duel is starting."

* * *

I watched Yusei's duel with a slight smile on my face. It was actually quite fascinating to watch a Riding Duel, even if I didn't understand how they worked.

"Have you faced her before?" Bommer asked me, causing me to stop looking at the screen and turn towards him.

"Her?" I replied, before I figured out who he was referring to. "Oh, Aki. Yeah, I've faced her a few times, though I never won against her."

"Oh?" Bommer asked, intrigued by what I had said.

"She defeated me several times the same way she beat deLauncebeaux, though I wasn't hurt as severely as he was," I responded, frowning slightly at the mention of deLauncebeaux's injuries. "I'm not as worried about facing her if I make it past the first round, because I already have a good idea about how she duels. But I don't think that I'll win against her."

"You're not confident in your abilities, then?" he questioned.

I shook my head. "No, I am. I just haven't faced many duelists before, so I could always lose due to my lack of experience, and Aki is much more experienced than I am," I turned back to the screen. "I just hope I get the chance to face Yusei."

"You're confident that he'll win?"

A slight smile appeared on my face once again. "While I've only seen him duel once, that was enough for me to know that he's skilled. He'll make it to the next round, I'm sure of it."

* * *

"I guess your confidence in him was well founded," Bommer commented as he watched Yusei finish off his opponent, Mukuro Enjo.

"It was, and still is," I replied, nodding as Yusei turned his D-Wheel around so that he could go over to the fallen duelist, whose D-Wheel had toppled over from the sudden loss of speed.

"Ms. Sakamoto?" I turned around to face a tournament official who was standing to the side. "Your duel will start soon. Please head to the stage."

"Alright," I replied, grabbing my duel disk and attaching it to my arm as I stood up, walking towards the door. I did notice that Professor Frank wasn't in the waiting area anymore, and I figured that he had left to head towards the duel field, where our duel would take place.

* * *

My heart was racing as I stood on the platform, waiting to be elevated onto the stage for my duel. I was so nervous, considering that this was the first duel I would have in front of an audience. I had been taking deep breaths for the last few minutes, but they weren't really doing anything to calm me down.

I saw a slight flash of black and white in front of me, causing me to jump slightly in shock. I blinked rapidly, before seeing that Clear Wing had appeared, scaring me. I put my right hand on my heart, before I glared at my dragon.

"Clear Wing, I really didn't need that right now…" I said angrily.

Clear Wing just growled in response and rubbed its transparent head against my face, causing me to freeze. I rested my hand against the space where Clear Wing's head would've been for a few seconds, before Clear Wing pulled back slightly. It growled again.

"You… were trying to get me to relax and calm down, weren't you?" I whispered quietly, looking at my dragon. It nodded slightly, bringing a smile to my face.

"Thank you…" I whispered before Clear Wing growled once more and vanished from view.

I looked at the spot where Clear Wing had been for a few more seconds, before I closed my eyes and breathed deeply one last time. I was truly lucky to have Clear Wing, and I wouldn't let it's efforts to calm me down go to waste.

I felt the platform start to rise up, and I heard the MC introduce me to the crowd.

"And here comes his opponent for this duel! She's a mysterious girl whose background and record are unknown! How will she fare?! Sora Sakamoto!" The MC exclaimed as I felt the platform lock into place, and I opened my eyes upon hearing the crowd cheer. I looked across the field at Professor Frank, and I saw him smile gently at me, but I could tell that something wasn't right with his smile.

"I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, Ms. Sakamoto," The professor said to me, bowing slightly.

"Same here," I replied, giving a slight bow as well. _I'm actually not pleased to make your acquaintance, but I'm not going to tell you that you creep me out,_ I thought.

The two of us raised our duel disks in front of us, and I hardened my eyes in determination. I wouldn't let him catch me off guard.

"And now, the final duel of the Fortune Cup's first round! Start!"

"Duel!"

SORA | FRANK

4000 | LP | 4000

"I'll go first. Draw," I said as I drew 6 cards from my deck, and I looked down at them. Magna Drago, Blizzard Dragon, Influence Dragon, Spell Shattering Arrow, Raigeki Break, and Dragon's Rage. It definitely wasn't the worst hand, but it wasn't the best, either. _Better play on the safe side for now._

"I place a monster in defence mode, and place one card face down," I said as I put Magna Drago in defence mode, along with Spell Shattering Arrow. "Turn end."

I saw Professor Frank narrow his eyes as he looked at my field, before straightening out after a few seconds. I narrowed my eyes at his behaviour. He smiled at me once again, laying two fingers against the top card of his deck and gently removing it.

"It's my turn. Draw," he spoke. "I begin my turn by activating the Spell Card, Mystical Space Typhoon, to erase your middle face down card."

"Not so fast," I told him. "I activate the Quick-Play Spell Card, Spell Shattering Arrow, destroying your Mystical Space Typhoon and dealing you 500 damage."

SORA | FRANK

4000 | LP | 3500

"Ooh! Sora not only countered Professor Frank's Spell Card, but also dealt damage at the same time!" The MC announced.

"Impressive, Ms. Sakamoto. To deal damage while at the same time countering my Spell Card," Professor Frank noted. "Next, I'll summon Symmetry Rorschach in Attack Mode."

 _What the hell is that thing?_ I wondered as I watched a purple mist form and compress itself in front of him. It didn't really have any shape, but it did creep me out.

Symmetry Rorschach, Level 3. ATK: 1200

"You truly are a mysterious person, Ms. Sakamoto. I'd like you to tell me what you see," he requested calmly.

 _He's trying to do something,_ I thought, _but I'm not entirely sure what. I'm definitely not falling for it, though._

"I see nothing," I told him evenly, not making eye contact with his monster.

"That's too bad," he said in his continuously collected tone. "Symmetry Rorschach, attack. Spiral Mind."

His monster charged forward, landing on Magna Drago's face down card, and spread it's hands against the brown surface. A flow of purple energy erupted from its palms, piercing through the card and causing it to explode in a mass of shards. I flinched at the destruction of my monster, and clenched my right fist tightly. I wouldn't let him get away with this, but I needed to stay calm. Losing my temper now wouldn't do anything good.

"It appears as though you are angry," he noted, looking at my clenched fist in apathy. "You must have a close bond with your monsters, if you're reacting like this."

"Of course I'm angry," I said quietly. "But I'm not going to let it cloud my judgement." I looked right at him.

"However, you are keeping the true reason you're close to your monsters a secret, are you not?" he inquired. I froze when I heard that. _How did he know?_

"You're keeping it a secret because you fear being shunned again," he looked right at me as he said that.

I had to take a deep breath to keep myself from panicking. This Professor was getting to me, even when I didn't fall into his trap, and it was scaring me. I had never felt this unnerved before, and honestly, I just wanted this duel to end now. If only so that I could get away from him.

"I suggest you stop bringing unnecessary things into this duel," I said calmly. "We are only here to duel, after all."

I couldn't really tell if he listened or not, but at least he stopped talking about my fear. "I activate Symmetry Rorschach's ability; when it destroys a monster, it forces the opponent to reveal the top card of their deck," he said with a thin smile on his face. "Peeping Mind."

A giant eye appeared in the center of the shapeless creature and opened. I shuddered slightly, and quickly pulled the card from the top of my deck, holding it up for him to see.

"Polymerization," I said quietly.

"So, you have a fusion monster in your deck," he commented upon seeing my card. "I shall set a card face down, ending my turn. Now, what shall you do, Ms. Sakamoto?"

I ignored him. "Draw," I said as I grabbed Polymerization from the top of my deck, placing it into my hand. There wasn't really much I could do, since I didn't have a Thunder Dragon in my hand to take advantage of. _Looks like I'll have to summon Blizzard Dragon, then._

"I summon Blizzard Dragon in Attack Mode," I said as I placed the card down, watching as the dragon appeared on the field, letting out a roar.

Blizzard Dragon, Level 4. ATK: 1800.

"Battle!"

"I activate my Trap Card, Gestalt Trap," Professor Frank said calmly, interrupting me. The card rose up, and spat out a large black cuff that quickly slammed closed around Blizzard Dragon. The dragon squirmed, trying to free itself, but it wasn't able to.

"Gestalt Trap reduces your monster's attack power to zero," he stated.

I gritted my teeth in frustration, but I kept my face neutral. I didn't have any cards that could protect Blizzard Dragon from getting destroyed. I did have Raigeki Break, but I wanted to save that in case I really needed it as a last resort.

I took Raigeki Break out of my hand. "I set a card," I announced. "Turn end."

"Sora's dragon has no attack points because of Professor Frank's trap card, leaving her vulnerable to attack," The MC stated. "How will she counter this?"

"So, you will continue to fight?" Professor Frank said with a thin smile. "That is a good sign. I begin my turn, draw."

He removed the top card of his deck, and smiled when he saw the cards in his hand. I narrowed my eyes at that. He picked up another card from his hand, slipping it next to his Trap.

I activate the continuous Spell Card, Immortal Homeostasis," he announced as a purple glow appeared around my dragon, causing it to growl in discomfort. I looked at it worriedly.

"Sudden change is something homeostasis prevents. So, the brutal end of Blizzard Dragon will be negated, and it will remain on the field. Immortal and suffering."

 _What?!_ I thought angrily at the thought of my poor dragon endlessly suffering because of that spell card.

"I tribute Symmetry Rorschach in order to summon Ido the Supreme Magical Force in attack mode."

A glowing circle of light appeared as Symmetry Rorschach turned itself into a flat disk, and a giant four-legged creature who looked like it was made out of blue energy appeared, before a yellow outline appeared around it. The creature let out a terrifying roar. I took a small step back. I can only guess that this is his ace monster.

"Battle. Ido, attack Blizzard Dragon. Violent Egoism."

The creature leapt forward, running towards Blizzard Dragon. I saw my dragon struggle once more, before giving up on getting free. The creature dropped its claw onto my dragon, causing it to explode violently into a mass of shards.

SORA | FRANK

1800 | LP | 3500

I stared at the spot where my dragon had been only moments prior with horror, but it quickly turned to anger once again when I saw the shards reform into my dragon, who looked defeated and pained. What made it worse was the fact that Professor Frank didn't seem to care that he had caused so much damage to my poor dragon. He just picked up a card and placed it face down on the field.

"I'll end my turn," he stated.

I clenched my fist once again. I didn't think that I was going to be able to forgive him for this, but I sure as hell wasn't going to let him win. I heard a growl from my left side, so I looked out of the corner of my eye, and saw that Clear wing wasn't pleased either. It looked towards me, before turning back to the field and nodding.

 _You want to be summoned, don't you?_ I thought, and as if Clear Wing could read my thoughts, it nodded again.

 _Alright, I'll summon you, as soon as I get that stupid Trap off Blizzard Dragon._ Clear Wing disappeared as I turned back to my opponent.

"My turn. Draw," I said as I pulled the top card out, and as soon as I saw it, I smiled. Thunder Dragon had shown itself.

"During your Standby Phase, because Blizzard Dragon's attack power differs from its original attack power, you receive 300 points of damage," Professor Frank told me.

SORA | FRANK

1500 | LP | 3500

"I activate the effect of Thunder Dragon from my hand," I started as I placed Thunder Dragon into the graveyard. "By discarding it, I can add up to two Thunder Dragons from my deck to my hand," I added both of my Thunder Dragons to my hand. "Next, I activate the Spell Card Polymerization, to summon Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon to the field in Attack Mode!"

The two Thunder Dragons appeared on the field, before a vortex appeared behind them, causing the two to disappear and in their place was an orange dragon with two heads, each with a purple horn growing out of the top of its nose. It spread its wings, and let out a roar as it appeared on the field.

Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon, Level 7. ATK: 2800

"Incredible! Sora has managed to summon a monster that has more attack power than Ido!" The MC yelled as the crowd cheered.

"Battle! Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon, attack Ido! Thunder Blast!" I said as both of them opened their mouths, before releasing two blasts of electricity right at Ido, who roared as it was destroyed.

SORA | FRANK

1500 | LP | 2900

"Turn end," I said as my dragon settled back down onto the field.

"Impressive, Ms. Sakamoto," Professor Frank said, as he drew his card. "However, I activate Ido's effect; when it is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, it's Special Summoned to the field again during my Standby Phase."

The beast reappeared behind him, lowering the front half of its body as if it was going to pounce once again. I merely raised my eyebrow when I saw it return.

"Professor Frank's monster has returned!" the MC announced. "Destroying it in battle doesn't seem to do anything! How will Sora cope with this?!"

"Ido, end this duel by attacking Blizzard Dragon. Violent Egoism."

"Not so fast! I activate Raigeki Break!" I declared as I revealed my face down card. "By discarding one card, I can destroy one card on the field, and I choose Gestalt Trap!" I sent Dragon's Rage to the graveyard.

"What?" Professor Frank exclaimed in horror as his Trap was destroyed, freeing Blizzard Dragon, and returning its attack power to normal. Ido didn't stop its attack, and collapsed right on top of Blizzard Dragon, destroying it.

SORA | FRANK

1100 | LP | 2900

As soon as Ido retreated, Blizzard Dragon reformed, standing next to Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon. While it still looked like it was in pain, it looked relieved to be free of that trap.

"Sora has gotten rid of Gestalt Trap, restoring Blizzard Dragon's attack back to normal! This means that Immortal Homeostasis will no longer deal damage to her every Standby Phase!" came from the MC.

I shall activate the Wave of Ill Intent Spell Card, then end my turn," Professor Frank announced as his face down card was revealed.

"My turn. Draw," I said, taking the top card of my deck. I didn't look at it though, since I already knew what I was going to do this turn.

"I summon the Tuner Monster, Influence Dragon in Attack Mode," I stated as a thin, dark blue dragon with metal wings appeared.

Influence Dragon, Level 3. ATK: 300.

"A Tuner Monster?" he questioned. "Are you going to Synchro Summon?"

"I am," I confirmed. "I tune my level three Influence Dragon with my level four Blizzard Dragon."

Influence Dragon glowed and turned into three balls of light, which flew into the air. Blizzard Dragon flew up after them, and when the lights turned into rings, the dragon turned into four balls of light inside of them.

"Banish the shadows of this world with the powers of the stars. Spread those luminous and beautiful wings, and take flight!" A pillar of light shot up from the rings, and an outline could be seen from inside the light. "Synchro Summon! Come forth, Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!"

Clear Wing appeared on the field, with light shooting through the crystals on its body, before it spun around, and let out a fearsome roar. I felt my right arm burn, and I looked down to see that the mark was glowing through my armband.

Clear Wing Synchro Dragon, Level 7. ATK: 2500.

"So, I will fall here…" Professor Frank said upon seeing the two dragons on my field.

"Battle! Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon, attack Ido with Thunder Blast!" Ido roared as it was destroyed once again, but I knew that it wouldn't be coming back this time.

"Since you destroyed my monster by battle, Wave of Ill Intent deals you 300 damage," Professor Frank told me calmly, apparently unfazed by the fact that there were two dragons staring him down.

SORA | FRANK

800 | LP | 2300

"Clear Wing, finish this! Attack Directly with Hell Dive Whirlwind Slasher!" I ordered.

Clear Wing flew up into the air and I saw that its crystals started to have light shoot through them once again, as it did a loop-de-loop before it dived towards Professor Frank with light green wind spinning around it. It flew right into Professor Frank, reducing his Life Points to zero.

SORA | FRANK

800 | LP | 0

"And there we have it!" the MC yelled ecstatically. "Sora overwhelmed Professor Frank and she will advance to the next round, joining Bommer, Yusei, and Aki to duel it out for the chance to face the King!"

I watched my dragons fade from the field, before turning around and exiting, removing my hair from the side ponytail it had been in for most of the day, hearing the crowd cheer for my victory as I left.

* * *

I was walking down the hallway, heading back towards the lounge, when I heard footsteps approaching me. I turned around, only to have a turquoise blur barrel into me, and when I looked down I saw that it was Lua.

"Sora-nee! YOU WON! I knew that you could!" Lua exclaimed ecstatically, hugging my legs.

"You did really well, Sora-nee," Luka told me as she walked up with Yusei following behind her. A small smile appeared on my face.

"Thanks, Lua, everyone," I said, but when Lua pulled back, I frowned.

"You're going against the Witch next, aren't you?" He looked worried.

I sighed. "Yeah, I am. But I'm not worried about having to go up against her, even though I'll probably lose." Lua frowned at the last statement.

"But you could get hurt!" he insisted, and while I knew it was true, I didn't have any other options.

"I'll be fine, Lua," I told him as I patted his head.

"By the way, Sora-nee…" Luka started, drawing my attention towards her. "What was your opponent talking about when he mentioned that you were keeping the real reason you were close to your monsters a secret?"

I looked down, causing my bangs to hide my face. It looked like I won't get out of explaining what Professor Frank hinted at. It was probably time that I told the twins anyway, since I've known then for over a month now.

"I can… see Duel Monster Spirits," I said quietly. "I've been able to since I was young, and that's why I'm so close to my monsters. It's also why I don't like duelling, since I can't stand to watch them get destroyed."

"So, you're like me?" I heard Luka say, causing me to look up at her in shock. "I can see them as well."

I was silent for a minute after I heard Luka say that, then I smiled. "I guess I am like you, then."

"That's so awesome, Sora-nee! So, what's it like being able to see them?" Lua asked excitedly. Luka pulled her brother back.

"Lua! Don't pester Sora-nee!"

I giggled slightly at the two of them, before looking at the others. They looked shocked, but I didn't see any hatred or fear in their eyes, and I was relieved. The fact that they didn't treat or look at me differently when they learned about that made me so happy.

 _Perhaps, I might tell them about my healing abilities someday, along with my mark,_ I thought as I turned my head back towards the twins, watching them continue their mini-argument with a small smile on my face.

* * *

Yep, Sora came clean about her ability to see Duel Monster Spirits. But she kind of had too, since Professor Frank mentioned it.

And Spirit Clear Wing makes an appearance once again, showing off its close bond with Sora.

Finally, I wanted to say Merry Christmas for those of you that celebrate it, and Happy New Year!

See you in the next chapter,

Akane~


	6. Encounters and Discussions

Hey guys, Akane here, and welcome back to the next chapter of The Body of the Dragon!

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the... 4-5 month hiatus. I had no intention of having that long of a time gap between chapters, but some things got in the way, with most of that being personal stuff. I actually wrote up a part of the chapter that would've taken place during Luka's duel with Professor Frank, but I decided that it would be better if I skip that duel entirely. I did reuse the original start of that chapter though, so at least some of the writing didn't go to waste...

Also, I might have missed some typos since I really wanted to post this, so if you see one, please tell me in a review so I can fix it!

Finally, thanks for all the follows and favorites! Seeing those numbers go up inspired me to continue writing even when I was going through some tough times!~

Anyway, onto the chapter!~

* * *

Yusei and I started walking back to the lounge after talking with the others for a few minutes. I was still shocked that they had accepted the fact that I could see Duel Monster Spirits so easily, especially after what I had gone through when I tried to help people during the time I lived on the streets after I ran away from an orphanage.

I looked at Yusei out of the corner of my eye. He hadn't said anything since we met up in the hallway with the others, and I was rather curious as to what he thought about my duel. Mostly, I was just looking to see if I could get any advice.

"So," I started, drawing Yusei's attention. "How did I do?"

"You did well," he stated. "But you did struggle during the first half of the duel."

I sighed when I heard that. "Yeah, I did," I replied. "I let my opponent get to me, and it affected my duelling. I actually thought I was going to lose when Ido attacked Blizzard Dragon near the start. I only ended up winning through pure luck."

Yusei shook his head slightly. "No, your cards came through for you. I think the fact that you have a close bond with them helped."

I shrugged. "I guess. But it was still luck that I got Thunder Dragon when I did," I said as we came up to the lounge. I was about to open the door when Yusei spoke.

"You have a mark as well," I turned back to face him in surprise. I wasn't aware that he had one as well.

"Yeah, I do," I said quietly. "But I don't really know much about it, other than the fact that it just appeared on my arm one day, like I told the others." I grasped my arm tightly as I said that.

"Apparently, they're a part of a being called the Crimson Dragon, and those that possess them are called Signers. There was a tribe long ago that worshipped the dragon, and the Signers could summon it, with each of them having a mark. That's what Yanagi told me."

"Signers, huh?" I muttered quietly. Well, at least I now had a name for what I was, even though I was going to wait until I got more information before I started to refer to myself as that. I looked up at him in confusion when my brain finally registered the last thing that he said. "Wait, Yanagi knows about these?" I motioned to my arm.

Yusei nodded. I wasn't entirely sure what to make of that, but if it meant that I got some answers, I would be fine with it.

I opened the door after that, and once I had entered, I held it for Yusei. He walked in, and I let go of the door, letting it shut behind the two of us. I walked over to the couch where Professor Frank had been sitting, and sat down, looking at my right arm as I felt Yusei sit down next to me. It was quiet for a few minutes after that.

"Everybody!" The MC spoke, breaking me out of my thoughts. I turned towards the monitor. "Yeah! We have an emergency on our hands! Event Sponsor Goodwin has just made a surprising proposition!"

"Hey, all you losers who were regrettable defeated in the first round, are you listening to this?!" _You didn't have to call them losers,_ I thought irritably. _I certainly wouldn't want to be called that._

"It's been determined that we will now be holding a consolation game!" I frowned. While I knew that Lua would be jumping up and down in excitement at the chance to duel once again, it was rather suspicious that they chose now to do this…

"Yeah! Now we're about to announce the match-up for the consolation game! The match will be conducted only by the randomly drawn set of players! And the person fortune has chosen was regrettably defeated by Contestant Bommer, but at the mere age of 11 her skills have received Sponsor Goodwin's seal of approval!" I froze. Luka, I thought worriedly. They must have figured out that Luka wasn't the one who had duelled Bommer.

"She has promise that's simply soaring through the roof! The Duelling Angel from the Heavens! Ms. Luka!" The MC announced as a spotlight was shown down on Luka. She looked shocked, and I couldn't blame her, especially since she suddenly has to duel now.

"Luka…" Yusei murmured as he looked at the monitor.

"That girl is the real Luka, right?" Bommer asked, causing both Yusei and I to look towards him. I hadn't seen him when I entered the room. "The imposter showed me some duelling. I wonder how the real one will fare."

After he said that, he walked over to his previous seat and sat down. I didn't really pay attention to him though, since my focus was still on the shocked face of Luka that was being displayed on the monitor. She eventually stood up and started walking down towards the field, but I could see how nervous she was.

"I'm worried…" I said quietly. "Luka doesn't like duelling, and the one time I saw her duel against her brother, she was really tired when the duel had finished. It's probably because she sees Duel Monster Spirits like I can."

"Now on the field is the Young Duelling Prodigy, Luka!" The MC announced as a cloud of smoke appeared on the field, before it disappeared, leaving Luka standing there nervously. She put her duel disk on her arm, and as soon as the band enclosed around her arm, she looked shocked for a second, until she looked up with a small smile.

"And now, facing against Ms. Luka, the Young Duelling Prodigy, will be Professor Frank!" The MC finished, as smoke rose out of the ground, showing my previous opponent standing there with the same fake smile he had when I duelled him.

"Why are they having her duel him…?" I questioned quietly as I remember what he tried to get me to do during our duel. While I had easily recognized what he was trying to do, even though I hadn't managed to avoid his psychoanalysis completely, I wasn't entirely sure that Luka would be able to do the same. She was still a child, after all.

* * *

I sighed in relief when the duel ended with Professor Frank falling onto his back in defeat. I didn't really register the fact that the duel had been a tie, as my concern for Luka outweighed everything else, especially after I watched her practically become comatose after the man had activated his trap card.

I looked down at my right arm curiously. During the duel, I had felt the same pain as I had when I awoke after Aki had abducted me, and I noticed a red glow coming from it, though it settled down after the duel ended.

"I would've thought that you would be down there, since you seem rather close to that girl," Bommer commented, drawing my attention from the screen where I watched Yusei catch Luka before she collapsed.

I turned to look at him. "I should've been, but I guess I didn't know what to do…" I trailed off. It was true, after all.

It was silent for a few moments, before Bommer spoke again.

"I have been in the same situation, being unable to help my loved ones," he told me, but that didn't really make me feel better. I should've been able to do something to help, but instead I just sat around and watched, just like I had done back at Arcadia.

I stood up and made my way to the door, ignoring the way that Bommer stared at me as I walked past him. I wanted to get to Luka as fast as I could, so that I could verify with my own eyes that she was fine.

I opened the door and walked out, speeding up my pace as I started to navigate the corridors of the stadium. As I did so, I started thinking about the duel I had just watched. I still felt that the whole thing was suspicious, especially the fact that they chose a child. Why would they choose her out of all other duelists who had lost in the first round? It just didn't make sense to me, and I had a feeling that it wouldn't for a while.

I was broken out of my thoughts when I heard Lua's voice. I must not have realized that I had gotten to the stands.

"Luka! Why'd you go and force the game into a tie?! Jeez! Jeez! Jeez!" he shouted at his sister, who looked completely unfazed by her twin's behaviour. Considering she had been dealing with him for longer than I had known the both of them, it was understandable.

"It's better than losing. It wasn't like I was going to win at that rate anyway," she retorted calmly, closing her eyes as she turned away. A small smile came to my face as I watched the two of them. These two could be quite entertaining during one of their arguments, if they weren't annoying me.

"But, jeez!" Lua whined, and I rolled my eyes at his behavior.

"Lua, whining isn't going to fix anything," I commented as I approached them, coming to a stop next to Yusei. Lua looked back towards me, along with Tenpei, though I did notice that Yusei's eyes shifted to look at me for a few seconds, before he turned back towards the rest of the group.

"But Sora-nee!"

I sighed. "Lua, calm down. You'll have many more chances to duel again."

He looked like he wanted to reply, but I noticed Luka lift up her left hand and cover her right arm, right where a mark would appear. I inhaled sharply, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Yusei's eyes widen.

Yanagi turned to face Luka. "Luka, are ya feelin' okay?" he asked in concern as the rest of the group turned to look at her.

"Yeah. You did space out during the duel too," Tenpei added, leaning towards her, or as much as he could with Lua in the way.

Luka took her hand off of her arm when she heard that, looking up and moving her head side to side so that she could see everyone. "Uh-uh. I'm fine."

I didn't quite believe her, but I wasn't going to pry, especially in front of all these people. If she wanted to tell me, she would tell me on her own time. Besides, I had a feeling like it had something to due with her ability to see Duel Monster Spirits.

"Anyway," Yusei stated, causing me to look at him. "I'll be seeing you three home today."

The rest of the group looked up. "That's a good idea," Himuro said with his arms crossed.

Lua, being his normal excited self, stood up to face Yusei. "Really?!, then you should come sleep over at our place!"

Luka looked at her brother. "Lua, you should ask Sora-nee if it's alright before you invite people over," she scolded. I started to relax as I saw her go back to her normal behaviour.

Luka looked at me. "Please, Sora-nee! Let Yusei come over!" he begged. He looked like a puppy, and it was adorable.

I rolled my eyes slightly, but I had a smile on my face. "I have no problem with it," I told him.

Lua jumped up and down in happiness. "Yes! Thanks, Sora-nee!" he cheered.

"Everybody listen!" Everyone in the group turned their heads and looked at the orb that was in the center of the stadium as the MC appeared. "This concludes the heated first day of the tournament!" he leaned back slightly as he extended his right hand, though most of it was cut off due to the size of the screen. "And these will be your match-ups for tomorrow's semifinals!"

I looked at the screens that showed the match-ups with narrowed eyes. I had already known that I was going to be dueling Aki based on the match-ups from the preliminaries, but that didn't mean that I was happy and excited to do so. Though this may be the only way to get through to Aki…

"And on that note, today's excitement is left to be continued until further dueling tomorrow! Good bye!"

"You're up against the Black Rose, girly," Himuro commented.

I frowned at what he called me, but I didn't really react otherwise. "Yeah. I'm not exactly happy about it, even though I had a feeling that it would happen."

Himuro glanced at me when he heard my reply, but he turned back to the screen and didn't say anything. "He's a formidable opponent," he said to Yusei. "Since it's a Riding Duel, I'm looking forward to what kind of D-Wheel Bomber's going to ride out on."

"What's wrong?" Luka asked her brother, causing me to look over at the two of them. The first thing I noticed was that Lua had a serious look on his face, and I scrunched up my eyebrows as I tried to figure out what he was thinking.

He looked at his sister in surprise. "Eh? Um, nothing at all!" he said quickly as he waved his hands, and I raised my eyebrow at his actions. _That was a rather quick response to an easy question,_ I thought.

"Listen, you guys head home without me. I remembered something that I have to do," he told his sister as he walked around her.

"What is it?" Luka questioned him.

"Let's see, what was it again?" Lua said cheerfully as he put his left arm behind his neck. "I'll just have to remember that too!" He laughed nervously as he ran down the stairs.

"Lua!" I called after him, before I turned to face the others. "I'll go after him. Yusei, can you take Luka home?"

Yusei nodded, and I gave him a quick smile before I turned around and ran.

* * *

 _Where on earth did he go?_ I wondered as I ran through the halls once again.

For the second time that day, Lua had managed to evade me, and I had lost sight of him in the crowd. I wasn't entirely sure how he did so, since he had a hair color that was even more noticeable than mine, but he did.

I stopped running and put my hands on my knees, panting slightly as I tried to regain my breath. I had looked everywhere that I could for about an hour, considering my horrible sense of direction, but I wasn't able to find him. It was like he had vanished.

I sighed in defeat as I stood up and headed to the exit so that I could go back home. I knew that I would have to wait for Lua to come home, even if that was exactly the opposite of what I would like.

I didn't notice that someone had approached me from behind. That was, until they spoke.

"So, this is where you were, Sora," I froze when I heard that voice. Please tell me that's not who I think it is, I thought worriedly, but I knew that it couldn't be anyone else.

I turned around slowly, only to see my fears confirmed. There he was, wearing a brown trench coat. Divine, the leader of the Arcadia Movement. A man who I had thought I had left behind like my days at that place.

I narrowed my eyes at him as I spoke. "Hello, Divine," I said calmly, masking my unease at being in his presence once again. "It's been a while."

"It certainly has," he replied, before he got a serious look on his face. "Why did you run away?"

I blinked in surprise. "You mean Aki didn't tell you?" I asked, before my eyes narrowed. "It's not like it's any of your business anyway. It's my life, and you can't tell me what to do," I told him as I turned around and walked away.

Before I left, he said something that truly scared me. "I'll get you back to the Movement, Sora. Even if it's by force."

I wouldn't let him see how much his statement bothered me, and I continued walking until I saw an intersection. I darted around the corner, sitting down as soon as I could, wrapping my arms around my knees and leaning my forehead against them.

 _Why did I have to run into him?_ I questioned. All I wanted was to be free of the Movement, but reminders of it were appearing everywhere.

I sat there in silence for a few minutes, before I heard a sound. I turned my head slightly in the direction I heard the sound come from, and came face to face with Clear Wing.

It growled slightly and tried to nudge the side of my face, but due to the fact that it was just a spirit, it wasn't able to. However, its behaviour brought a small smile to my face.

"Thanks," I said quietly, holding my hand over where its head would be. Clear Wing always knew how to comfort me when I needed it, and for that, I was grateful.

"I should probably head back," I muttered as Clear Wing growled again before vanishing. I stood up and made my way out, attempting to push my encounter with Divine out of my mind as I did so.

* * *

I stopped by a grocery store on my way back so that I could make dinner, as I didn't have the time to yesterday. By the time I got back home, the sun was starting to set. I took my boots off and made my way to the kitchen so I could put the bags of food down.

"Oh, Sora-nee! You're back!" Luka said happily as she looked over the back of the couch. Yusei was sitting on other couch, and the two of them stood up, making their way over to me.

"Did you catch up to Lua?" Yusei asked, and I shook my head in response.

"No. I nearly did, but when the stands started emptying out, I lost him in the crowd," I sighed. "I stuck around for another hour looking for him, but I had to go get some ingredients for dinner, even though I wanted to stay and continue looking."

I started unpacking the bags so I could start cooking as I said that last part, and I didn't mention my encounter with Divine.

Luka seemed to pick up on that. "Did something else happen, Sora-nee?"

I tried not to react to that question, but I failed as I froze for a split second. I turned and faced her, giving her a smile that probably didn't reassure her.

"Nothing else happened, Luka. Don't worry," I said to her as I turned back towards the stove. "Would you like to help me make dinner?"

"Sure!" she replied happily.

It was quiet for a bit as the sounds of sizzling food filled the room. I focused on not burning any of the food, since when I started living with the twins, I burned the food several times. However, Luka spoke up after I turned off the burner.

"Sora-nee… Have you heard of a World for Duel Monster Spirits?" she asked quietly.

I put the pan that I was holding down and turned to face her. "No, I haven't. Though that would certainly explain where Clear Wing goes when its not around," I commented. "What brought this up?"

"During my duel today, I ended up in the Spirit World, and my opponent followed me," I frowned when heard that, as I wasn't exactly pleased, but Luka continued on. "While I was there, I remembered that I had promised the spirits there that I would protect their world. I also saw the protector of the Spirit World, Ancient Fairy Dragon frozen in stone…"

"Did anything else happen, Luka?" I asked in concern, kneeling down to look her in the eye.

"Professor Frank also called me a Signer, but that was it," she looked up at me. "What is a Signer, Sora-nee?"

"I'm… not really sure to be honest," I told her. I wasn't exactly lying, since I really didn't know that much, and all that I did know I had learned second hand. So I didn't exactly trust what I heard.

"We'll probably find out eventually, though," I continued. "So, we'll just have to wait." Even if I would rather not wait, I added mentally.

"I guess…" she trailed off at the end, and I put my hand on her shoulder.

"Let's bring the food to the table, ok?" I said as I stood up again, picking up a few dishes and walking over to the table.

* * *

"Lua sure is late," Luka said with a worried expression on her face.

"He really is," I replied. "It's not like him to miss dinner, especially since we made his favorite hamburger." I lifted the lid of the dish in front of me at the same time I said that, before I looked up at the clock. I could feel a worried expression make its way onto my face as I saw the time.

I heard the sound of a chair scraping against the floor, and I turned towards the sound to see Yusei stand up. "I'm going to look for him. Something may have happened to him."

I put the lid back on the food, before I stood up as well. "I'll go with you," I said, and he turned his head towards me. "After all, two pairs of eyes are better than one when it comes to searching."

Yusei nodded, and we were about to leave when I heard Luka stand up. "I'm coming with you two."

I frowned. "You should rest, Luka. I'd like to know that you're safe, especially at this time of night."

"I'm feeling fine now, Sora-nee," Luka argued, beaming brightly at the two of us. "And I might feel worse if I stay here. He's my brother, after all."

She had a point, and I sighed in defeat. "Fine, but stay near me, ok?"

"Ok!" she nodded in agreement.

* * *

Luka and I waited in an alleyway for Yusei to show up with his D-Wheel. We didn't have much success in locating Lua after an hour of searching, and I hoped that Yusei had more luck.

I heard the sound of a D-Wheel coming to a halt, and I looked up, walking towards it. Yusei pulled his helmet off, and judging by the look on his face, he didn't have much success either.

"Did you find him?" he asked once we had gotten close.

"There's no sign of him anywhere," I told him, shaking my head slightly.

"Same here," Yusei muttered. "I searched from the venue all the way here, but…"

"It's like he's vanished," I said as I looked down. "I hope he's ok…"

Yusei looked like he was about to say something, but a beeping sound coming from his D-Wheel interrupted him. He leaned forward and pressed a button, while I walked over to see what he was doing. The screen shifted, and I was shocked to see it reveal Saiga's face underneath a large cowboy hat.

"Yusei, I just got to your hideout in Satellite," the brunette reported.

"Is everyone alright?" Yusei asked, with a slightly frantic tone in his voice. While I wasn't exactly sure what was going on, I could understand Yusei's emotions. After all, I was going through the same thing at the moment.

Saiga shook his head grimly. "I hate to break it to you, but they're not here."

"What did you say?" Yusei gasped. "Did something happen?"

"I don't know, but I broke into their network, and there's no record of them being caught by Security so far. I'll keep up my search for them on this side," Saiga told him, before the screen fizzed and displaced, cutting him off. "Uh-oh. Can't keep contact for much longer. I'll contact you as soon as I learn anything."

"Yeah, please do," Yusei answered, before static consumed the picture. I looked down guiltily, Yusei's friends were missing too, and here I was having him help me look for Lua when he had other things to worry about. All because I wasn't able to catch Lua before he vanished. I clenched my fist.

"Your friends are missing too, Yusei?" I heard Luka ask.

"Yeah," he replied as he looked down. He seemed to be doing the same thing that I was; blaming himself, though for an entirely different reason.

"I hope they're alright. It seems somewhat suspicious though, having them disappear while you're in a tournament…" I trailed off.

Yusei looked like he was going to say something, but he was interrupted again by the sound of something approaching us. I stepped in front of Luka protectively as I saw a figure appear from the shadows, even though I knew that I wouldn't be able to do much.

Once the figure stepped out of the shadows, I gasped when I saw it was Bommer, and he had Lua over his shoulder. It looked like the boy was asleep, but I was still worried.

"Lua!" both Luka and I cried out in unison. I started to make my way towards them, but I stopped when Bommer looked towards me.

"How did you…" I heard Yusei start to ask, but Bommer shifted his sight away from me and interrupted him.

"I'll explain later," he answered. "He's not injured. He's just sleeping, it seems."

"We should take him home," I said quietly, but considering there was no other sound, everyone heard.

"I agree," Yusei commented, not taking his eyes off of Bommer.

* * *

I draped the covers over Luka and smiled softly. I had barely managed to get her into her room before she fell asleep, and I had somehow gotten her into her bed. I had a feeling that the day's events had worn her out. They certainly had for me, at least.

I made my way out of the room quietly, as I didn't want to wake her up, before I shut the door and headed over to Lua's room to check on him. Yusei had decided to stay in the living room while Bommer and I took the twins up to their rooms. While I wasn't exactly comfortable with that, I knew that there was no way that I could carry both the twins.

I opened Lua's door slightly, and I was immediately greeted with the sound of him snoring. When I looked inside, I saw that Bommer had pulled the covers over him, and a smile formed on my face as I shut the door. I would have to thank him for finding Lua.

A slight frown made its way onto my face as I walked down the stairs to the living room. _Where had Lua gone, and how exactly did Bommer find him,_ I wondered.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I noted that Bommer had gotten down here before me, and it looked like he and Yusei had gone somewhere. I felt a slight breeze, and I heard voices coming from the pool area as I turned to face the door. I saw that it was open, and I walked over there, stepping outside into the night air. I shivered slightly at the temperature difference as I made my way over to the two males standing at the edge of the pool.

"How did you find him?" Yusei asked.

"He was sleeping inside my garage," Bommer answered, and I looked at his back in surprise. "It appears the security system was enabled and he was locked inside. I'd guess he came to find my D-Wheel."

I sighed loudly when I heard that, and the two turned back towards me. "Of course he would do that…" I muttered, before I spoke up. "He probably wanted to help Yusei because he looks up to him. What he tried to do was wrong, though." I gave Bommer a small smile. "Thanks for bringing him back, by the way."

"It was no problem," Bommer told me, before he turned back and faced the city skyline. "I can't blame him. When I look at those two, I remember my little brother and sister back in my hometown; they're about the same age." He took a few steps forward and looked up at the sky. "There are no stars in the sky in this city, huh. Yusei, Sora, what are you fighting for?"

I was surprised by this question, but I guess Yusei wasn't. "My hometown," he aswered.

"I don't really know, to be honest," I said softly. "Probably for those I care for."

"I see," Bommer said as he turned around to face us. "Then it would appear that we're cut from the same cloth. I come from the other side of the world. My tribe are descendants of those who served the People of the Stars, whose tale is known amongst the Inca's."

"People of the Stars?" I asked quietly, as I was unfamiliar with the term.

"Then, you know the story behind the Crimson Dragon?" Yusei inquired.

"I do," Bommer nodded. "Much time has passed, and now the Crimson Dragon is attempting to resurface. Director Goodwin is planning to use that power to lead the world in the right direction."

 _Lead the world in the right direction?_ I thought. _That doesn't sound right to me, at least in this context._

"And you believe that?" Yusei asked blandly.

"Yusei, I know how poor your hometown is," Bommer said, and I noticed that he ignored the question Yusei had presented to him. "My village has been plighted with poverty and discrimination. But the Director promised… he said that he would restore my home-village if I were to lend my assistance."

Something about that seemed off to me, and it looked like I wasn't alone in that thought. "Bommer, don't trust him," Yusei protested.

I nodded in agreement. "Something about this entire thing seems off," I added.

Bommer either didn't hear me, or just ignored what I had said. "We're from the same cloth, but it seems we're in different positions. Neither of us can compromise our beliefs. We'll settle this match between us."

He strode past the two of us, and as soon as he entered the elevator, I sighed. I wasn't entirely sure what to make of what I had just learned about Bommer, but I could at least tell that he wasn't a cruel person.

"Well, it looks like you have an interesting duel tomorrow," I said to Yusei, and he nodded.

"You do as well, Sora. You are going up against Izayoi," he replied.

I frowned at that reminder. "I probably should go through my deck one more time and change around my cards," I said thoughtfully, before I was interrupted by my stomach growling.

I blushed slightly, before I turned so that I could head back inside. "But first, we should probably eat." I commented as I walked inside.

I heard Yusei start walking behind me as we entered the house, and I shut the door behind us before I went to the kitchen so that I could reheat the food. I could have eaten it cold, but it tasted better when it was warm.

We started eating soon after, and as soon as we were done, I brought the dishes into the kitchen before I headed over to a couch and sat down. Yusei sat down nearby and turned to face me.

"Do you know what happened during Luka's duel?" he asked in a normal tone, but I could tell that he was worried about her.

I hesitated, because all that I knew was what Luka told me, but I didn't want to share it without her permission. "No, I don't. I was really worried during the entire thing, though," I said. It wasn't a total lie, but I still felt bad about it. I took a quick glance at the clock as a yawn escaped my mouth.

"It's getting rather late, and we both have duels tomorrow, so I think we should call it a night," I told him as I stood up and made my way over to the stairs. "There's an extra bedroom you can use, if you'd like to stay here tonight." I pointed to another door near the bottom of the stairs.

"Thanks for the offer," he said as he stood up and walked over to the door. "Good night, Sora."

"Good night, Yusei," I replied as he shut the door and I headed up to my room.

* * *

I had the small light on my bedside table on as I looked through my deck. While I had already changed into my pyjamas, I just wanted to make sure that my deck was in good order for my duel against Aki. I felt that it was a good idea, especially because I didn't know how I was going to do with her as my opponent, and I wanted to try to get through to her in some way.

I removed Luster Dragon #2 and replaced it with Spear Dragon, as I felt that it might be useful, even if it had no defence whatsoever. As I put my deck back together, I pulled out Clear Wing's card and looked at it. As much as I didn't want to use it, I had a feeling that Clear Wing would probably help because of its effect.

I slid Clear Wing into my deck and put it on my bedside table before I reached up to turn off the light. If I even had a chance at beating Aki, it certainly would help to have a good night's sleep.

 _I really hope that no one gets hurt tomorrow,_ was my last thought before sleep took me.

* * *

And that's the end~

I will try to start and finish the next chapter this month, but that might not happen because I'm working on a few other story ideas that I may or may not publish here.

I also just realized that this is the longest chapter I've ever written for this story, with over 6,000 words...

See you next chapter,

Akane~


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